How do we engage the modern learner? This loaded question generates answers ranging from design, delivery, implementation, learning environment consideration. Those are all legitimate answers! Each aspect of the modern learning experience deserve consideration, if we want to get modern learners excited about the prospect of professional development.

Obviously, we want to incorporate the most impactful elements into our training programs. In thinking about the evolution of learning, and how humans generally learn, two factors stand out: collaboration and community.

Another year has come and gone. This time of year encourages reflection, both personal and professional, causing the InSync Team to ask questions such as:

• What did I learn this year?
• How did training evolve?
• Which developments resonated with modern learners?
• Where did learning provide innovative value to our companies?

For us, 2018 marked a widespread shift towards truly blended learning. Organizations, learners, and practitioners alike began to embrace the possibility of building skills outside of formal events. Complex, purposeful, and at times frustrating, the evolution to the new blended reality required us all to consider a handful of key elements: modern learners, engaging facilitation, comprehensive instructional design, and planning for the unexpected.

In thinking about leadership and learning in the era of the four-generation workplace, no shortage of frustrations exists. Technology changes, “cool” workspaces, and operational processes are constantly evolving.

Everything feels more complicated, and learning faces the unique challenge of equipping and empowering our colleagues for success in this new environment. It’s quite simple to chalk up learner disengagement – especially that of the millennial employee – to a “person” problem.

But what if it’s a “perspective” problem?

As technology evolves, our ability to learn anytime and anywhere changes, too. Now, our possibilities seem literally endless. Constant communication, the pervasive availability of information, and the ever-changing opportunities for social collaboration exemplify this new reality.

At no point, though, has critical thinking been simultaneously more important and less commonplace. As learners and learning architects, we struggle to discern the accuracy and efficacy of information on the internet. Thanks to web-based anonymity, how do we figure out who on the internet has any expertise?

Virtually There Recap

Think about your day-to-day role. Do you host meetings? Facilitate training? Give presentations? Whether you run these events or not, they represent an important part of our professional lives. Often, we see these events as time wasters, rather than important investments of our focus.

As learning professionals, team members, and managers, we strive to engage and involve our audiences so that they can remember the information we share with them. We hope to take them beyond listening and towards true learning. With the right approach, we can achieve that lofty goal.

Brain-based learning expert Sharon Bowman shared her presentation model and guided our Virtually There participants through a process for getting the brain to pay attention.

Often trainers become trainers because their organizations see them succeeding at their jobs. “Oh! You’re a great customer service rep. You can teach other people how to perform customer service.” “Wow! You created a beautiful new page for the internal website. Can you teach these three team members your process?”

Your competitive differentiators likely landed you the role of facilitator, designer, and sage.

But that puts you at a disadvantage. Modern learners require modern approaches, and when you start off as a Subject Matter Expert, you very rarely get support around the “brain science” piece of training. You don't have basic knowledge of learning theories, design theories, and strategies you can target and influence your instructional designs.

Jennifer Hofmann, President of InSync Training, recently joined eLearning Guild’s Virtual Classroom Panel during their 2018 Learning Solutions Conference. Jennifer and other industry experts shared their insight into the challenges, realities, and best practices of live online learning. This post, the third in the series, recaps their panel discussion.

From instructional design to delivery to production, virtual learning requires special treatment. Accustomed to the face-to-face classroom, learners often perceive live online sessions as “less important.”

How can we fight this stigma and increase learner engagement?

Nina Talley Everflow, Senior Program Manager of EnCompass, Jennifer Hofmann, President of InSync Training, Karen Hyder, Principal of Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting, and Bianca Woods, Sr. Manager of Programming for the eLearning Guild believe in the approaches detailed in this blog post.

Here's a radical idea: maybe we've been thinking too small when it comes to instructional design.

Relying on proven principles while purposefully expanding the scope of our vision can help us accomplish organizational goals and empower learners to better navigate their modern workplaces. We believe in a more thorough model so much that we practice and preach perpetual learning design.

Our new video explains the concept in under three minutes - click here to view. 

When designing and delivering content, we need to balance five elements of the learner experience: technology, design, people, place, and time.

In order to achieve this balance, we need to focus on the learner experience. We need to define and leverage how learning is structured, including when it is taking place, where it is taking place, and how it is being delivered.

We’ve been using virtual classroom technologies for close to 20 years now. Unfortunately, we are still holding on to a content model that insists the most important outcome is getting through all of the slides.

This webinar approach to content delivery is perhaps the most ineffective way to get information out to the world. Few of us have the motivation or concentration to focus on 60 minutes of lecture.

And, most importantly, we know that learning only "sticks" after learners have a chance to apply what they’ve learned and then reflect on the experience.