101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom

Elaine Biech

• Publisher: Pfeiffer
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118971994
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Fresh, creative strategies guaranteed to enliven online training

101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom provides proven, practical strategies, activities, and tips for those tasked with facilitating training in any subject area among alternative settings. Based on the best-selling Active Training approach, these methods have been designed by recognized experts, and are guaranteed to enliven any learning event. Readers will find a toolkit of ready-to-use exercises and tips for organizing, conducting, and delivering active learning, in alternative settings on the job or around the world. The book is organized in a way that allows trainers to quickly and easily identify strategies that hold the most promise for specific situations. Each strategy is illustrated with a case example that demonstrates the concepts in action. Two hundred tips organized in twenty how-to lists will prove invaluable for using Twitter, coaching virtually, encouraging informal learning, opening interactive virtual learning sessions, and much more. Coverage includes best practices for social media and informal learning, common e-learning tools, as well as guidance toward using a full gamut of tools from gamification and simulation to serious games and m-learning.

Active training encourages participants to use their brains to study ideas, solve problems, and apply what they've learned. It's a fast-paced, fun, supportive, and personally engaging environment. This book shows training facilitators the proven techniques that help learners get more out of the material.

• Design a more engaging learning environment
• Improve delivery with optimized technology
• Utilize effective learning tools and practical strategies
• Learn best practices for social media, coaching, virtual learning, and more

Learners need to figure things out by themselves, ask questions, practice skills, and transfer skills and knowledge to the job. With proven strategies designed by industry leaders, 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom is the indispensable guide to the design and delivery of effective alternative ways to learn.

Technology Tactics

Blended Solutions

Blended learning—everything could fit in this category, but it is “how” it fits in that makes it a “blended solution.” Just because you have a combination of a video, an asynchronous activity, and a classroom module does not make it “blended learning.” Instead, “blended learning” means that you have chosen the best delivery methodologies to accomplish specific objectives. Organizations use blended learning to increase instructional value by searching for places where costs can be minimized and technology maximized. This does not mean looking for the “cheapest” way. It means looking for the best way to deliver training where and when it is needed. So, whether you call it blended learning, a flipped classroom, or something else, the key to your learners' success will be whether you have matched the right delivery mode to the right objective.

22 Move to the Goal

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Overview

Use this blended strategy to help learners move toward the objectives they desire.

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Participants

5–30 in a learning situation

Procedure

1. Prior to the session, set up a course blog and have participants download an overview of the course content. This should be more than the agenda but not more than two to three pages of reading materials.
2. Participants should also download their prework, which is to identify two to five goals that they want to complete during the session. If the topic is conducive to a supervisor's involvement, include a couple of questions and/or discussion points to guide a discussion between the supervisor and the learners.
3. In the training room, have one wall designated as “goal post.” You can simply use a sign saying “Goal Post” on the wall or you can be creative and add a drawing of a goal post.
4. Seat participants in groups of five to seven. Ask them to discuss their prework assignment and to share their learning objectives with the group.
5. Ask participants to write their most important learning objectives on a colorful sticky note. If they have more than one, ask them to use separate sticky notes for each, but ask them to keep it to a maximum of three per participant. Tell them to add their name to the sticky notes and to stick them on the first page in their notebooks. They will use them later in the session.
6. On a flipchart, consolidate the learning objectives by asking each group to identify their objectives. Avoid repeating the same objectives on the flipchart. Tape the flipchart sheet containing the learning objectives under the “Goal Post.”
7. Tell participants, “Throughout the program, it is your task to achieve your learning objectives by asking questions and sharing your knowledge and experience.” Also say, “The flipchart at the Goal Post will serve as a reminder of our objectives and help us to focus.”
8. Tell participants that during the discussions or at the end of sessions, whenever they feel that their questions have been satisfactorily answered, they should go to the Goal Post and post the objective (on the sticky note) that has been accomplished. The objective is to have all of the learning objectives met and all of the notes stuck to the Goal Post.
9. Whenever participants stick notes on the Goal Post, the group can celebrate by sharing the learning and applauding or cheering.
10. At the end of the session, have participants retrieve their objectives and create a note to themselves on the back of each sticky note about what they will remember for that specific objective. Encourage them to post their thoughts on the blog and to continue to share their ideas on it.

Variations

• Use colored ribbons to make the Goal Post bright and attractive.
• Use only the flipchart. At the end of each session, ask participants to stick those objectives that have been fulfilled on the flipchart.
• Skip the flipchart. Use only sticky notes.
• In some programs, learning objectives are very clear to participants, and they will identify them easily. In some others, it may not be that obvious to participants. In those cases, you may want to share brief introductory remarks before placing participants in small groups.

Case Examples

1. In a program for new frontline staff of a bank, some learning objectives were:
   • How to work on the banking software
   • How to open a deposit account
   • How to open a loan account
   • Knowledge of different deposit products of the bank and their features
   • Knowledge of different loan products of the bank and their features
2. In a program on leadership, a few of the objectives were:
   • What the leadership functions are for creating a great team
   • How to ensure that change happens
   • How to ensure that communication is effective
   • How to ensure that meetings are effective
   • How to motivate people

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Contributed by Saleha Ahmad, State Bank of India.

23 Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Job Aid

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Overview

This strategy takes learning out of the classroom and puts it back in the workplace in the form of a do-it-yourself (DIY) jo...