by Jacqui Nelson
When we first started Nelson Croom nine years ago, we were considered quite ‘left field’ in our approach to elearning and learning design. I’m not sure that was a deliberate decision. We just followed our gut instinct and did what we thought was right. So I was delighted, last Friday, to hear one of elearning’s most respected experts putting forward an approach to adult learning which in so many ways mirrored the approach that we developed nine years ago and is still central to almost everything we do.
On Friday I attended my first elearning network event entitled ‘Making the case for elearning’. The final speaker of the day was Charles Jennings. I’ve heard of Jennings before, read things he’d written and seen him collect an Outstanding Contribution award at last years World of Learning Awards but I’d never heard him speak. Speculation during the break suggested that he’d been given the last speaker slot of the day to keep delegates there until the end – no mean feet on a sunny Friday afternoon. If that was the case, it certainly worked.
Jennings’ session was ‘Creating successful technology based learning strategies’ based on his experience at Thomson Reuters where he brought together two learning departments of merging companies and successfully transformed the learning strategy.
The case study was interesting and very impressive but what grabbed me was the end of his presentation when he talked about what make good adult learning for the 21st century.
The crux of Jennings' position is that we live in changing times – nothing is stable or certain anymore – so we need to change the way we educate our workforce to reflect this. He talked about today’s VUCA environment – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – and why these times require a different approach to learning.
Referring to research conducted by Robert Kelley from the Carnegie Mellon University, he talked about the massive change in the percentage of knowledge employees retain in order to do their job. In 1986 research showed that individuals retained 85% of the knowledge they needed to do their job. By 1997 this had dropped drastically to 15-20%. It has subsequently dropped even further to, in 2008, between 8-10%. This, suggested Charles, has a major impact on the way we need to educate our workforce, or perhaps more appropriately, how we can facilitate their learning.
Generation Ys no longer want a push approach to learning. They don’t want, suggested Charles, to learn and retain lots of knowledge. Once they know information exists and where it is, they think ‘If I need it I will go and find it’.
At Nelson Croom we have always believed that adult education is best when it facilitates learning and not when it tries to teach. Adult learning, according to Charles, is about experiences, practice, conversations and reflections; all things that you will find in the Nelson Croom approach to designing learning for professionals.
Jennings went on to talk about what ‘old world’ learning looked like in comparison to ‘new world’.
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Old world |
New world |
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Push Formal Rigid Mandated Inflexible Instructor led |
Pull Collaborative Personal User generated Flexible New media |
At Nelson Croom we have always believed in personalisation of the learning experience and allowing learners to learn what they want, when they want and in a style that suits them. More recently we have been developing tools that enable learners to work collaboratively. All things that Jennings believes are central to the ‘new world’ of learning.
I’m sure Jennings has been thinking this way for a long time now, but I’m certain that the majority of technology based learning professionals haven’t. I can’t help wondering if we were ahead of our time those nine short years ago when people thought our approach was a bit off the wall and out of the ordinary. Maybe we were but it certainly feels like the world of learning is catching up with us now.
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