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In crossing the chasm from over a decade in public education, both in the K-12 and university environments, to have an eye for vastly improving corporate training—I found the bridge to be an applied background in educational psychology. I discovered that despite most corporate training being built on top-of-the-line Learning Management Systems (LMS), the curriculum often does not address individual learners' ability levels. This gambles with training consistency and effectiveness—an expensive risk for organizations, especially in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) space with a typically higher turnover rate.
Can an LMS teach process and form a foundation of motivation and autonomy?
A shift in thinking: An LMS doesn’t just display content; it has the dynamic capacity to guide learners in building autonomy, increase the time to mastery of content, and significantly improve a person’s motivation to learn and perform.
Leaping the chasm: Employ the untapped features of your LMS for individualized learning.
Learning Feedback Loops in Quizzes
Commonly, corporate training tests knowledge retention through multiple-choice questions. Additionally, within the training experience are three to five common errors or misconceptions new learners make. To elevate your training using the LMS, base all your incorrect answers on those three to five common misconceptions for each topic. Then, use the feedback boxes on the system's backend to concisely explain the misconception and suggest how to think to reach the correct answer.
If a learner reaches the end of their quiz without feedback, the opportunity for learning and building the confidence of a new team member is gone or strongly weakened. Pro Tip: Add a link to a micro-learning on the misconception in the feedback box so the learner can brush up on the information before returning to their quiz. You can also build this kind of feedback and support into applied scenarios. This reaches the learner while they are still engaged.
The Benefits
You’re building the learner’s autonomy and critical thinking simultaneously. Instead of giving them the answer, it teaches them how to reach the correct answer. It gives them the confidence to continue that growth process throughout their journey with your organization.
“I discovered that despite most corporate training being built on top-of-the-line Learning Management Systems (LMS), the curriculum often does not address individual learners' ability levels. “
The data from basing incorrect answers on common misconceptions reveals key training insights. If learners regularly choose the same misconception, you know there’s either a gap in the training, training on that topic needs to be more robust, or more time is needed to understand that topic or master that process. This is because you’ve already predetermined the underlying misconceptions, and you have a clear compass for improvement.
Scaffold through Micro-learnings
Most Learning Management Systems build linear curricula, courses, and learning moves from beginning to end of a topic without a support structure. Enter micro-learnings. Using misconceptions and other supporting information for understanding a topic, build optional, short eLearnings along the learning path. These can be linked throughout a course to give the learner choice over the type of support they need, how frequently they visit the support, and how much time they spend on it.
The Benefits
When a person is new in an organization or taking on a challenging new role, they often seek early wins through approval from their peers and supervisors. Employees who struggle with a difficult process or concept may not want to indicate that to others immediately. Learning systems designed with built-in scaffolding allow self-teaching without risking the perception of being unqualified for the role. As confidence and mastery increase, so do productivity and assimilation.
Replace Checklists with Rubrics
If your organization uses observations as part of its training, consider giving your managers a method to provide individualized, detailed feedback that offers clear growth paths. While checklists are a useful tool for a binary accuracy check, they lack the detail for self-reflection and precise evaluation. Taking the time to delineate the layers of observable, measurable behaviors and outcomes expected for execution provides both quantitative and qualitative input while saving managers time in developing individualized feedback themselves and building consistency in the type and direction of the feedback across the footprint. Pro Tip: connect micro-learnings to rubric feedback to offer a 360-degree development process.
The Benefits
Robust rubrics ensure consistent behaviors across large footprints. They tie trainers and leadership directly to the LMS content and help to build the perceived value of these systems. Consistent training and observation lead to better standards and engagement.
Organizations can optimize the tools at their disposal in a high-speed era of upskilling and an increasingly competitive market for retaining talent. At the core of a critically thinking, autonomous, self-motivated, and confident workforce is our ability to tailor and adapt to employees’ individual experiences and ability levels.
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