A Case Study On 350 Org's Learning Strategy: A High-Stakes Learning Challenge
Climate change is no longer a black cloud on the distant horizon—it’s happening right now. The evidence for this is clear, with increased bouts of extreme weather, reduced crops, and more cases of health issues like asthma.
For this reason, 350 org have developed a scalable way to "skill-up" their campaigners across the globe and empower them to fight climate change effectively. Daniel Hunter, Global Training Manager at 350 org has named these learning experiences "skill-ups", and there’s a lot to love about their approach.
"We’re working to build the best 'skill-ups' because our planet’s future depends on it". - Daniel Hunter
You can find and read the full case study of 350 org’s learning approach here.
6 Great Things About 350 Org’s Digital Learning Approach
1. They Have A Crystal Clear Vision For Learning
When it comes to an issue as important as climate change, the last thing 350 org wanted to do was put together training resources that would go largely ignored, not support behavior change, or fail to make a practical difference.
So, even though there are lots of ways to deliver effective eLearning, Daniel chose an elicitive model. This approach is learner-driven, as the design and outcomes of the training process are informed by the learner’s own experiences, rather than decided beforehand by the trainer. Read Daniel’s thoughts on traditional "top-down training".
"As much as possible, we want to root lessons within people’s own psyches and experiences–as opposed to just talking at people". - Daniel Hunter
2. They Focus On Active Participation
350 org looked for an approach that involves active participation to provide campaigners all over the world with valuable, interactive experiences. They tried tools that enabled video discussion between campaigners across the world but found that insufficient internet connections, language barriers, and time differences made this tricky. Daniel explained, "we had to think differently with a new reach-and-teach strategy". So, they used Elucidat to create digital learning experiences that encourage reflection, provide personalized feedback and enable sharing of stories from around the world.
3. They Connect With People’s Own Experience And Environment
A key feature of the elicitive learning model is the sharing of real experiences. To create a feeling of connectivity and joint purpose, the skill-ups allow the learner to share their knowledge, whilst also learning from experts and other campaigners around the world.
Additionally, climate change is applied to the context of the learner’s own culture and political environment. As Daniel explains, the Skill-Ups aim to "root lessons within people’s own psyches and experiences", as opposed to just talking at them.
4. They Are Overcoming Barriers To Making Global Connections
Realizing that easy access to learning was key, 350 org focused on creating digital learning experiences that are accessible anytime, anywhere and on any device. Delivering the content in multiple languages was also essential to encourage active participation (and simple to manage in Elucidat). This has allowed them to ensure that the sharing of experiences isn’t limited by language, location, or access to technology.
"With these skill-ups, we can reach members of our network in areas as remote as Nepal". - Daniel Hunter
5. They Are Sensitive To Different Cultural And Political Environments
As the skill-ups are reaching a global audience, Daniel and his team gathered feedback from 50 campaigners in 50 different countries to check that they were being respectful of political circumstances and culture-specific sensitivities.
By taking the time to gain this feedback, they can be more confident that the skill-ups are going to effectively engage with their global audiences and drive the behaviors they’re looking to encourage.
6. They Are Always Optimizing For Greater Impact
For Daniel, the skill-ups are not a finished product... they are experiences that will be continually refined and improved over time.
They’re using feedback collected from their campaigners, trainers, and volunteers as well as the insights they gain from Elucidat’s analytics dashboards on how learners are interacting with the content. If you like, you can read more about 350 org’s skill-ups here.
Summary
There’s a lot to learn from 350 org’s approach. The success of their campaigns comes down to the effectiveness of their people on the ground. Their crystal clear goal for the learning content keeps things totally focused and has informed all of learning design choices along the way.
So, ask yourself... does the learning content you create have such a clear objective?
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