The world is facing challenges we have never seen before. We are restricted from travel, attending conferences, meetings and sometime our workplace. This is an opportunity for the Learning and Development world to show how they can be agile and create highly effective digital training rapidly. As Will Thalheimer of Work Learning Research said Learning does not often depend on the modality of delivery, but on the learning methods that are used (retrieval practice, spacing, feedback, repetitions, etc. and validity and relevance of content)”(see his Twitter comment).
So as someone has been teaching face to face and online for over 15 years I thought I would give some tips on creating great digital training, fast.
Tips
1.Video is the fastest way to create new content, fast. When working with a subject matter expert, it can take a lot of time and effort to get the information out of their head and then design the content to be delivered online. But, if you video them, well they are an expert and often love talking about what they do, so it can be a much quicker process.
2. Helping the subject matter expert appear in front of a camera. For many people this can be very daunting, but a trick I use all the time is the interview approach. It takes little preparation for the SME, they do not have to talk down the barrel of a camera, but can talk to the interviewer
3. The video production does not need to cinema quality (although sound and light are critical) but the content needs to be well designed, relevant and the presenter needs to be engaging, animated and interesting to watch. I know this is easier said than done, but pick people who are comfortable on camera or happy to try.
4. Don’t create a video, dump it in an LMS and hope they come. Break it up in a meaningful way, get the learner involved with questions, links to other material, it needs light and shade.
5. For long lectures I always make supplementary summary videos, because I know watching a lecture is mind numbing no matter how interesting. See how this has been done at Melbourne Law School.
6. Keep updating and adapting the content. You don’t to have build the entire course in one hit, if you need to get content out there due to home schooling. graduates are arriving to your workplace, start building and delivering as modules. So long as you have developed the scaffolding and you have designed the outline, go for it. Don’t be stuck with striving for perfection. focus on design, authenticity, relevance and meeting the learning outcomes.
7. It doesn’t have to be long. I attended a brilliant session put on by the Victorian AITD called “Driving Rapid Skill Uplift & ROI, by Lisa Parniss of the Red Hero Group, and among many fabulous tips she reminded us that the we need to focus on teaching outcomes. So if someone has grasped a topic, say in induction training the goal is to the get the employee to be able to complete w,y,z, tasks using your internal software, then that is all you need to teach. It might only take 30 minutes, so why spend two days teaching it. I like to say a great teacher is like someone who is great at packing for a holiday. It is easy to take everything in a huge suitcase, but real skills is only taking what you need, maybe even just hand luggage ( something I will never achieve!!) Great teachers only include what is needed.
Conclusion
Jump in and start delivering in new ways. The barriers for change have been blown over at the moment, so let’s rise to the occasion and show we can deliver great learning even if we can’t deliver the way we had planned. It is not the modality that is critical it is content and relevance. It is time to shine L&D.
Please feel free to contact me, natalie@vidversity.com if you want to chat further about creating digital training or need help creating, editing and delivering video, securely in your LMS ( yes in SCORM or LTI) or other ways.
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