The May Learning Circuits Big Question builds on last month’s topic of how to deal with stakeholders’ “I want it now!” (and I also want it to be high quality, cheap and effective) attitude. This month, we’re looking at the ways in which learning practitioners may need to alter the learning environment to ensure end-users have immediate (or so near to immediate as to make little practical difference) access to resources that help them solve the problem at hand.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my response is very similar to dealing with last month’s issue. For me, the basis of an responsive, adaptive learning environment that can evolve with the needs of its users is an ability for those users to contribute to and benefit from a pool of organisational knowledge that can be edited and added to as needs arise. As you can see, we’re back to the learnscape concept from last month’s post - an environment made up of a number of different resources, but in which discussion groups, wikis and blogs all feature, and which are bound together into something like an organisational Wikipedia by full-text search and user-generated tags.
Although some people see this kind of system replacing the traditional LMS environment of hosted and trackable courseware, there is still a place for self-paced online courses, as well as traditional facilitated training sessions, in this larger environment. Both self-paced courses and traditional training can be valuable tools for newly inducted staff and for those who have transferred to a new role from another department. So, these features will remain, though for the majority of users (those who already have the basics down pat and who have completed mandatory learning such as health and safety awareness and anti-discrimination programs) they become less relevant than what they can source from the wider knowledge pool.
Presence awareness will continue to grow in importance across the corporate world. The ability to quickly locate and connect with acknowledged subject matter experts (SMEs) by phone, email, chat or web conference provides access to workers not currently co-located with the relevant SME, and opens up new avenues learning and information flows.
Of course, we can’t talk about on demand learning without mention of mobile support. Cast an eye over the pages of any company that offers training, especially technology training, to other organisations and you’re likely to find a number of offerings promising to teach you how to make the most of mobile applications and communication to drive your business to dizzy new heights. These promises say nothing about the quality of the information on offer, but it’s trite now to say that access to learning and reference resources from mobile platforms (smart phones, tablets, netbooks, etc.) is a consideration where workers have access to these tools - and more and more people will continue to have this access, whether because they’re required for the work they do, or simply because they are the modern equivalent of the mobile phone of the early nineties.
The most valuable resource you can give anyone to solve problems at the time they arise, however, is neither a tool nor an electronic respository of information. Rather, it’s helping your people learn to learn, and to engage in active problem solving. Meta-learning (learning about learning) and the simple (or perhaps not so simple) belief that problems can be solved are critical keys to success in work and life in general. Organisations that neglect to help their people develop these skills are the modern equivalent of the woodcutter who was too busy to sharpen his axe. Without these skills, even the best support resources can only do so much.
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