Lawyer are hungry for learning
I’m yet to meet a lawyer who is excited about completing the annual CPD requirement of 10 hours of learning, and yet lawyers are hungry for learning. Being in practice means being on top of latest case law, changes to law including the procedural aspects. Issues of law reform are also critical for lawyers. And of course, there is also the administrative aspects of being in practice, ensuring compliance issues and risk is managed in all areas from staffing to digital security.
That’s a lot! But lawyers are also incredibly time poor and under pressure to meet both client’s expectations and the need to meet budget.
The way lawyers access and absorb learning is therefore critically important and traditional methods of learning don’t always cut it.
Over the years we have heard ‘we prefer live training in this firm’. But I often wonder if that is really how the lawyers like to learn. Certainly, some modes of learning and training are better live but in this blog post, I wanted to share some examples of how our customers here at VidVersity, both in law firms and in other industries create and deliver training.
Let’s explore these now.
Make your people the face of your training.
So often, corporate training is ‘off the shelf’ or generic. We are all familiar with the workplace behaviour training or safety training that isn’t quite matched to how we work day to day. How engaged can we expect learners to be with this material? And how effective is this beyond the ‘tick the box’ requirement.
We worked with a building company which had been delivering generic training and yet site manager were still reporting gaps in understanding. To solve this problem, existing training was augmented by interviewing site managers directly, videoing that material and creating step by step training to address these gaps in learning. These were real manager speaking the same language they speak on site and addressing real problems.
This model translates to the law firm environment where skills and substantive law training can be easily filmed either in person or simply be recording a Teams or Zoom meeting. Once again, an interview style is a powerful way to overcome any awkwardness. Teleprompt apps are also ideal for recording scripted material.
Material can be recording and delivered immediately. Again, for skills training, video offers the opportunity for fast creation and delivery. This content doesn’t always need a long shelf life.
Break it down.
“We record everything here. All our lunchtime presentations and our training”.
“And then what do you do with it?”
“Nothing, anyone can watch it whenever they like”.
Did you know studies show that the average person’s attention peaks at around 3 minutes of learning and drops off at around 9 minutes.
There is absolutely no reason to leave videos unedited.
Our approach is to chunk learning down into 6-10 minute increments. Invariably, material presented in training sessions will fall naturally into these chapters. We then engage the learner with questions, perhaps a link to additional reading, a change in visuals, perhaps images, a table or other resources.
Creating natural ‘pauses’ in learning or a mode to signify to the learner that there is a key point to absorb will increase learner engagement.
Importantly, it also means learners can return to material as a resource at a later date and navigate to the specific chapter. This is unworkable with unedited video recordings. And probably why no one watch them…unless they have to.
The Hybrid Learning Model
Live learning and workshop style training is ideally suited to many types of skills based learning but using additional online components to create a hybrid model is a great way to support learners and make leaning much for engaging. We run monthly workshops where we combine live training with self paced learning. We track learner progress through this material. There is always a big gap in learning progress. We are able to identify exactly the point at which learners get ‘stuck’. We are able to address this with one on one support and training and the online content is accessible after the live workshops. Learners report that they later go back and revisit this learning when applying it later on in their day to day work. How likely are your learners to put up their hand and say “I don’t understand” or “I need some extra help with this”. Hybrid learning really gives learners the opportunity to get to grips with learning content without embarrassment. This is an incredibly powerful tool. Whether you are a Year 7 maths student to a senior lawyer coming to grips with a new CRM, the ability to access learning resources beyond the live learning environment is critical.
Video based learning for your clients
Most lawyers love to have the opportunity to speak directly to their clients, to share their expertise and to stay ‘front of mind’. But, post COVID, the days of lunchtime CLE sessions for clients may now be on the endangered list. Providing video based training and communications for clients is one approach used by some of our VidVersity subscribers. The content can be created and delivered quickly. Video provides the opportunity to remain ‘front of mind’ for the viewer and to provide a level of engagement that reaches beyond text.
Creating and industry specific compliance and technical training for institutional clients is also a revenue stream beyond traditional client work and is used by a number of professional services clients using VidVersity.
Privacy and Security
Of course, any content delivered digitally needs to be highly secure. VidVersity chooses to host locally with Amazon Web Services (SYDNEY) but when creating content online, ensure all elements of the creation process including hosting, meet security requirements.
Where is the video hosted? Can it be downloaded? When creating content and before publishing to your LMS, where does that content sit?
Why collect data
Law firms will routinely collect data on completion of learning both for CPD and for compliance reasons. Data is of course critical in these instances. But data is also key to ensure that the nature of staff training is adequate. A recent client used the failure of the majority of staff to respond correctly to a workplace behaviour online module to then identify that there was a gap in understanding on what was appropriate in this case. The L&D team were then able to quickly respond by developing additional learning in this area to ensure all staff understood what was needed. So designing learning in a way that is agile, and specific to the needs of the team mean that training is truly unique the to organisation.
What is this for?
Considering the longevity of training is key to decisions around the time spent building it. We recently employed a professional film crew to create workplace training for a large health care provider. But day to day (short term training) to get staff up to speed with changes to procedures or the new rules around mandatory reporting can be recording, then interactive learning created and delivered within hours. The source of the video might be a laptop and a training manager or it might be a drone and a fully scripted team. So adapting learning to suit the needs of the organisation and the learner is key.
Conclusion
In a digital age, with a plethora of tools, platforms and a highly skills generation of ‘digital natives’, old school approaches to learning and training really no longer cut it.
And for firms with a culture of innovation, and a directive to try new things, we always see the best results in how teams use and embrace technology.
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A little bit about VidVersity.
There are plenty of video editing platforms on the market but here at VidVersity we have created an end to end solution from capture, upload, easy editing and the ability to add interactions and a range of ways to deliver to your clients. Our key focus is ease of use so anybody can use it and a produce a high quality end product.
To find out more contact us at:
1300 928 090
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