More Ways of Learning and Further Development

More Ways of Learning

A well designed online curriculum will provide learners with a strong basis on which to understand a subject.

However, you might find that some subjects often require support beyond the online materials you provide.

Additional learning might be needed to help learners to:

• Appreciate a wider context for the subject - perhaps the subject is one where alternative viewpoints are available and important to a thorough understanding of the subject. If so, help learners to find those views and encourage them to continue their learning. This might be through recommended reading such as books and white papers. Or you might encourage learners to subscribe to a newsfeed, check for LinkedIn articles or look for recommendations from their network.
• Apply what they’ve learned - an online curriculum can help learners to gain knowledge and understanding. Simple application can also be achieved. For subjects that depend on successful application you might want to set up formal methods of applying what has been learned to add depth to their initial learning.
• Regularly reinforce what’s been learned - for example, to reduce the risk that key areas will be forgotten. This is particularly important when safety critical learning is involved. Regular reminders are also a good way to avoid wasting the initial investment in learning.

Further Development

It’s a well known fact that once someone participates in learning, unless they use their skills quickly, a lot of what they’ve learned will be forgotten.

This is equally true of online and workshop-based learning.

It’s therefore important at the end of your online curriculum to encourage learners to reflect on what they’ve learned and apply it as soon as they can. Further development activities can also help with recall, particularly if the learner is unable to put what they’ve learned into practice immediately.

Reflection is a useful activity if directed.

It’s essential that a learner knows how they’ve performed against each of the curriculum objectives, so make sure they receive feedback on the results of their assessment. This can be automated (for example using quiz scores), or you might want to get a manager or other Performance Hub member involved in discussing qualitative results with the learner. This will help select suitable further development.

Don’t forget that the role of the Performance Hub is to provide learners with ongoing support. Adding a touchpoint activity towards the end of a learner's curriculum is a great way of assessing progress and can assist in the acquiring of knowledge where any gaps have been identified.