Daily learning can sound a pain, but it is the easiest way to learn something!
One of the challenges in organisations today is that information quickly becomes outdated, making it harder for colleges to keep updated. Courses become sluggish and too expensive, especially when routines, processes and guidance often change. Additionally, it may be unsuitable to learn a solution in detail that you rarely use. The term daily learning has two parts; partly that you receive the knowledge you need everyday and partly that you learn from it. Overall it is about the fact that you learn better if you learn something everyday.
The pile of information might look like this in an organisation…
The Thing about E-learning is...
Even if you have good intentions and plan it out in advance, e-learning is scaringly often seen by employees as a way to avoid to be physically present at a course to with a boring subject, and instead do it on on their own terms at their computers. But if you do not really want to learn, then you will naturally have a worse attention span during the course. And even if you will go through it on your own terms, you will not absorb the information fully.
Additionally the information is often near impossible to find after it is locked in a LMS. That is the direct opposite of how you search for information today. When you need to find something out, you probably use Google. You might find a walkthrough on Youtube or a post on a forum that provides steps, and voilá, you have your solution.
The best motivation for learning has always been need. If the information that you need is accessible just when you needed it, the learning process would have basically have ran itself. Courses are great for many things, but in many cases the best way to go is to distribute smaller knowledge articles that is accessible just when the employee has the need of learning.
Updated Information
Sharing information works best when the information that you need on a daily basis is accessible. It is not just now that you need to know something specifically about the economy system that you only use twice a year, and that you search for information about.
The norm today is to purchase a expensive e-learning system that is for a specific subject and use it in a way that is similar to a course. The systems are becoming larger and larger, because once you have paid for it, you may as well add a small part of another subject. And a little of this and that, and a little bit of that… The systems also becoming more and more appealing, and a lot of money is used to make sure that the systems are not so dull looking that the people who really need it will not use it. But think — do you really need to spend millions of dollars to make an e-learning system attractive and appealing? If you really, really need the information, shouldn’t it be relevant anyways? Education does not work better because it looks better. Education works best when you need it.
…But if it is done the right way, the information can be much more easy to find.
Learn Something Everyday
The brain works best when you learn something everyday. Even if you often search for the information you need, and in the process learn something new, you can also use a push-training system — a system for micro or nano learning. With push-training you can set up target groups and information and then link them together. You can send emails or notifications the remind the target group to look at the information, and when they do so, their session is saved. In this way you can be sure that the recipients are receiving the information and that they are learning something new.
This is a good replacement for the classic electronic learning, that often takes up a large part of the day to complete because you can spend three to four minuets looking for a a part of a larger course, and complete it within a few days or weeks instead. The material should of course be easily accessible in case someone needs it. Remember that learning works best when you need to.
Throughout time, humans have learnt by solving problems, become better step by step and realise, in hindsight, that we have become competent. With push-training, the education scenario is closer to this natural learning model. The humans can easily receive information and the organisations gain a greater freedom to change ways of working and metods due to having an effective way to change knowledge that their colleagues have.
