You saw it in the title, but here it is one more time for the people in the back: As an industry, my fellow Learning and Development professionals, it's time to break up with passive content.
Hello! My name is Andraya; I create content to help you elevate the way you do L&D and initiate a skills-driven strategy. If that is something you are focusing on this year, then keep on reading.
I Want to Break Up.
And by 'break up,' I mean let's move away from passive content (e.g., elaborate eLearnings, long-form videos, and hour-long webinars) as our main learning product. Too often, I see L&D teams whip out a 1-hour lecture-style webinar, place the recording on Sharepoint, and move on to the next one.
And you may be thinking, Andraya, what's wrong with passive content? eLearnings are interactive, webinars are full of rich information, videos are our learners' medium of choice, and it's all self-paced.
Well, entertain me for a second. Could you?
Think back to the last time you needed to learn how to navigate through a system. Did you enroll in a 45-minute eLearning to learn how? If so, please send me a DM on LinkedIn. I want to hear all about it.
But I'm going to go ahead and guess the answer is no.
The gist is that learners want to learn as needed. And it's no surprise that they want a quick reference experience similar to what they do outside of work. Enter Gen AI, YouTube, and Google searches, which are now fueled by AI.
Have a quick question? Need a definition? Navigating a new system? Just look it up.
There's no longer a need to try and force an eLearning covering the what, when, why, where, and how into your LMS in hopes that people will choose branching scenarios over the instant solution a powerful search-engine can provide.
Now, before you come at me, hear me out.
Of course, there is still a need for L&D to create material that covers the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
I'm just saying that the majority of the time and effort we spend creating passive content needs to shift to active, skills-driven content. In fact, I believe the entire modern workplace needs to shift, and L&D needs to shift along with it. Here's an article to back it up.
It's time to prioritize a skills-driven L&D strategy.
A Skills-Driven L&D Strategy prioritizes the majority of the learning experience design around interactive, immersive, and intentional activities that enable the learner to contribute and engage, not just sit back and listen.
Will there be a time for you learners to sit back and just learn the what, when, why, and where? Of course, but that shouldn't be the end of the experience or even where the bulk of your design and development time should be invested.
Instead, you can develop skills-driven programs by:
Creating knowledge-sharing content that covers the who, what, when, where, why, and how in shortest-form, reference-style formats. I'm thinking even more micro than microlearnings, such as powerful search engine snippets, videos with chapters, infographics, knowledge base articles, and gifs.
Prioritize designing engaging, memorable, and challenging learning experiences that focus on the HOW through exercises, group learning (virtual or in person), and on-the-job training that allow learners to practice in a safe space and promote trying, failing, and looking up all of that wonderful shortest-form, reference-style content while training in context.
This is something that I'm really passionate about, and if you're passionate about it too, please feel free to subscribe to our newsletter, connect on LinkedIn, and become a member of the Elevated Learning Experience to discover new ideas on how to implement a skills-driven L&D strategy at your workplace.
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