If we want to design a program that helps people to learn, we talk about many things, including… Providing the right kind of practice I recently reviewed an elearning program, and I was struck by how difficult it can be to provide the appropriate practice. An Easy Example For concepts, it’s generally not enough to… Continue Reading
Want to make learning easier? This ice breaker is fun, but more importantly, it also helps participants to “wake up what they already know” about a topic. Is “waking stuff up” important? Yes! Here’s why: We learn by adding to what we already know. When we get people to think about what they know already—even… Continue Reading
I keep seeing advice about living a simpler life lately. There are any number of ways to do this, and a few of them include slowing down, purposefully being less busy, and being intentional about what we do with screens. So, what if we simplify the focus? It seems that there’s just… Too much information.… Continue Reading
In keeping with the idea that “September is a great time to learn a few new things,” I just read the first part of How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. And yes, I’ve read about a zillion books in my lifetime, but why not see if there’s more to learn… Continue Reading
How about we…. Hire the best and the brightest people we can find to work in our company and then… …tell the vast majority of them that they are “Just Okay” Hire the Best & Brightest & Then Help Them to Flourish That’s what happens when companies evaluate employees using “stack ranking,” a system that… Continue Reading
There’s still something about September. Fall is on the way, and school is starting up again. So I loved receiving an email from the Khan Academy today, saying this… Because… I’ve been thinking about giving myself some little assignments to correspond with the new school year. After all, there’s always more to learn. Plus, if… Continue Reading
Oh wait! This title is bad feedback all by itself. We’ve all experienced it. Let’s see if we can fix that… Two truths about improving performance: In many cases, giving good feedback might be just what’s needed. Giving good feedback is much harder than it sounds. It’s Not All About What’s Broken Note: Vague feedback… Continue Reading
Someone posed this question the other day: What are the design implications when you change the technology? So, let’s assume that we’ve been teaching something face-to-face, but now we want to mediate the training. Put it online, for example. (This was the real question.) Try Chunking Content into Many Smaller Sections Here are some key… Continue Reading
Sooner or later, organizations responsible for providing learning & development opportunities have to decide whether to measure how they’re doing. It’s a great idea to use measures to… Improve what we offer (to do a better job) Prove that what we offer is worthwhile (show why we should keep our jobs) What shall I count… Continue Reading
One of my university profs had a knack for explaining complicated chemistry concepts and processes. As he spoke, he watched the students’ expressions. If they looked confused, he would explain again another way—until people clearly “got it.” His goal was not to get through his lectures; it was to make sure that we understood what… Continue Reading
