1. Help Learners Take Action
Our goal is almost always to enable our learners to behave more productively in the real world. But all too often, the connection between “what I do in this eLearning course” and “what I do when I go back to my job” doesn’t seem to be very clear. I come take some eLearning and then, later, I go do other things. Maybe I apply what I learned. We leave it to our learners to figure out how to connect the dots. But, then again, maybe that doesn’t work so well, right? And maybe that is one reason why as few as one in six learners actually goes on to systematically change their behavior after taking training.
Consider a simple example. Let’s imagine we want to help new managers come up to speed. It’s great to provide engaging stories and even better to provide learning-by-doing simulations. But if your learners don’t take responsibility to change how they actually behave back on the job, have you really helped? If your learners can’t form a practical plan for how to get started, how long until they forget what they learned?
2. Help Your Learners Take Responsibility Of Their Own Learning
Help your learners first take responsibility and then see concrete steps forward. How? First, help them build their own case for personal change. When you’re helping new people, you can help them see how they can become heroes, or at least avoid being dogs, only if they could better set expectations.
3. Help Learners Cross The Learning-Doing Gap
Help your learners figure out just how to apply knowledge using the new behaviors you are promoting back in the real world. By definition, your learner will be a novice in the approach your eLearning promotes. And being a novice is, well, scary. Have you ever set expectations? How comfortable would it be to fumble around actually trying to use some new model for setting expectations you just learned in training? With a real live other person! Help your learners cross the learning-doing gap by giving them some baby steps. How about if they use this job aid? How about if they run a first experiment by setting expectations for themselves? How about if they try it out with a team member with whom they have a great relationship? Such baby steps give your learners a way to realize little wins in the real world, and what could be better than that to create a pathway for lasting behavior change?