Unfortunately, for many employees, workplace learning ends up being another task tagged on the end of an ever-growing to-do list. 

Yet, Deloitte’s 2017 ‘Global Human Capital Trends’ report found 42 per cent of millennials are likely to leave their organisations because they’re not learning fast enough. 

The data also reveals that among millennials, the “ability to learn and progress” is now a key element in their perception of a company’s brand.

While opportunities for workplace learning are highly valued, time is a significantly limiting factor.  

When the average employee has only 24 minutes per week to learn, it is crucial to understand how to maximise that time and ensure that learning is useful.

In this article, we will be exploring how participants can make the most of their online learning experience in the time available. 

The following five tips are our suggestions for maximising the time you allocate to online learning.  Whether you are a participant or learning and development professional, they may be useful to share with your colleagues and help to develop the learning culture in your organisation: 

1. Understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie

If you know exactly which aspects of your role you are good at and which need some work, you can use the limited time you have for learning in a targeted way.  

For example, if you know you need to develop your communication skills, but you are confident in the hard skills required for your role, communication should be the focus of your learning time.

Avoid completing tasks and lessons you already understand for the sake of it, and communicate this to those responsible for learning and development in your organisation.

Sometimes flexibility in workplace training is limited, and every staff member has to take the same course.  If this is the case, when you are given the opportunity to provide feedback, you can explain that it would be better if the learning was personalised.

2. Develop a growth mindset for learning 

The term “growth mindset” was coined by Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, Carol Dweck.

She argues that an individual’s views of their ability can be placed on a continuum, from those with a “fixed mindset” to those with a “growth mindset”.  

In an interview in 2012, she describes the difference between the two states of mind in the following way: 

“In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.”

Being able to learn independently is a crucial skill for any employee (or adult!) to have, but it isn’t always easy.  Sometimes we expect those in positions of responsibility to have all the answers, when we could easily do a little extra research and find out for ourselves. This will save time emailing back and forth or waiting for answers to questions you could easily Google.

On the flipside of this, there will be situations when a new concept just isn’t clicking for you, and you need to ask somebody for help.  

A great prompt used in schools to encourage independent thought is ‘brain, book, buddy, boss’ when students are looking for answers to a question.

If you have exhausted all the other options available to you, asking a colleague, a facilitator or your boss is a perfectly viable next step.  More often than not, you will find the answer before needing to ask your boss and you can both happily continue getting on with the other tasks you have planned for the day. 

You can either work on learning goals by yourself, with a line manager or in collaboration with a colleague responsible for learning and development in your organisation.

When thinking about what your learning goals are, your most recent performance review is a good place to start.  Learning and development goals may already be included in your review, but, if not, think about which specific areas of your role you really need to pay more attention to. 

This information, as well as understanding your general strengths and weaknesses, will help you to form a clear picture of the direction your learning needs to take.

A one stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available, and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance and business training needs. 

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Five ways to make the most of an online learning course

When the average employee has only 24 minutes per week to learn, there is an increasing demand for courses to be delivered in manageable, easy to access formats.

As part of this, course assessment is being redefined with micro-credentials - the alternative to traditional qualifications such as degrees or diplomas. 

Deakin University defines micro-credentials as mini-qualifications that demonstrate skills, knowledge and/or experience in a given subject area or capability.  

They are already in use across the education sector, including online learning, universities, and vocational colleges, and are set to be the future of upskilling in the workplace. 

Micro-credentials tend to be less detailed than traditional degrees or diplomas, although they are flexible and can include a wider breadth of learning material. 

A key difference is that they are used to accredit learning for both hard and soft skills.  For example, you could have a micro-credential in a broad topic such as ‘data science’, or in a specific soft skill like ‘effective workplace communication’. 

Globally renowned industry analyser and research analyst, Josh Bersin, describes a new paradigm emerging in corporate training. He labels this, ‘learning in the flow of work’, which means presenting employees with opportunities to learn through platforms they are already using.

The advent of micro-credentials is paving the way for such advances, as they enable organisations to incentivise workplace learning.  People are often naturally motivated to learn, but the promise of recognition beyond their current role makes participating all the more worthwhile. 					      								

The benefits of micro-credentials for businesses and employees

With micro-credentials already being used across the education sector, there is no doubt that they will continue to shape the future of learning.

The following points explain why micro-credentials are making such an impact, and how they could help to upskill your workforce more effectively:

Personalising learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring.  Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to simplify this process.

As micro-credentials are often less detailed, it becomes easier to tailor learning to an individual employee’s needs.

Learning content that was once part of a longer course can be made available separately, meaning participants can engage with the material they need.

This avoids the issue of employees wasting time completing learning material which is either irrelevant to them or unnecessarily time consuming, while still gaining recognition for their efforts. 

As microcredentials are often more succinct than their traditional counterparts, there is greater flexibility in the content. 

Learners can develop hard skills specific to their roles and level of experience, and gain recognition for individual modules without having to complete a lengthy course. 

They can also be recognised for developing soft skills, which are not acknowledged separately in many traditional courses. 

Deloitte’s 2017 ‘Soft Skills for Business Success’ report predicted that two out of three jobs would be soft skill intensive by 2030.

The report goes on to explain that a workforce with a mix of skills is crucial for business success and prosperity.

With this in mind, a focus on soft skills is all the more important, and micro-credentials are a great way to upskill a workforce in this area.

Micro-credentials also create flexibility in the structure and delivery of workplace learning.

Course content can be designed from scratch and tailor-made for an organisation.  Learning can also be delivered incrementally for employees to engage with at their own pace. 

By offering micro-credentials, organisations are able to design and deliver bespoke learning experiences for their team members. 

Opportunities for ongoing learning and growth are important for employees to feel invested in the organisation they work for.  Ultimately, human beings function best in environments which allow them to grow. 

The simplified structure of micro-credentials makes workplace learning all the more accessible to employees, as they can complete a course in less time, while still gaining recognition for their efforts. 

With the rapid pace of change in the digital age, there is a widening gap between the skills required in the workplace and the readiness of employees to perform their desired roles. 

Micro-credentials are helping to address this as employees or job seekers can quickly learn the skills necessary for a current or prospective position, and gain long-term recognition for participating. 

At Go1, we offer workplace learning in partnership with a range of organisations, along with micro-credentials and recognition for completion of courses. 

Go1 portal administrators can also create awards, within which they can specify which courses, or sets of courses, can be completed to obtain certification in a particular area.  

Micro-credentials: the major disruptive force in workplace learning

For many of us, learning is an activity we associate with sitting in a classroom listening to an adult or expert imparting knowledge.

Yet, our brains are wired for learning and growth, no matter where we are or what we are doing.  From an evolutionary perspective, our ability to learn has shaped us as a species and continues to do so. 

Newborn babies learn through their developing senses and interactions with the world, and this process becomes increasingly complex as we progress through life. 

As our thoughts become more layered, it can be challenging to remain open to the idea of continuous learning.  Other priorities take over, and it can be difficult to take on new concepts.

In order to do this, we have to be in the right place psychologically, and this is why developing a growth mindset can be useful. 

With this research in mind, a growth mindset is a psychological state anybody can develop with the right attitude, making them all the more receptive to new ideas and concepts.

But how might you go about doing this? What changes to thought patterns or behaviours might you need to make? The tips below should help you to get started: 

1. Admit that you don’t know everything

Admitting when you don’t understand a concept or how to solve a problem can be challenging, particularly in a professional context.  You want your boss to think you’ve got everything under control and that you’re doing an amazing job 100% of the time, but this is humanly impossible! It’s much better to ask for help when you need it or to clarify with a question.  This means you’ll be able to learn something new and avoid the stress of not understanding how to progress with a task.

Every conversation you have is an opportunity to learn something new. Whether you’re the CEO or an intern, our experiences are all different and we can learn a lot from what a colleague or team member has to say.  You can do this by asking more questions when you talk to people and mine for new information.  You might be surprised who teaches you something new. 

This is a key component to having a growth mindset. When colleagues give you feedback on a piece of work, it can be hard not to take it personally, but try to remove yourself from the situation and act upon what they are saying. You can even seek out feedback.  This is a great way to grow in your role and gain insights from your peers or those with more experience.

As human beings, we are susceptible to second-guessing ourselves and being afraid to put ourselves out there.  While negative self-talk is useful from an evolutionary perspective to save us from sticky situations, in the relatively safe and comfortable modern world, it can be quite destructive and limiting.  

If you have a fixed mindset, you might believe that it is impossible for you to grow beyond the talents and skills you already possess, but this simply isn’t true.  While, as Carol Dweck explains, you might not become Einstein, the brain is plastic and capable of forming new neural pathways throughout life. The opportunity for growth and learning is always there, we just need to harness it. 

5. Understand your strengths and weaknesses

When you understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you can identify which areas to devote your energy to, and which need more attention. You might benefit from taking a course or asking for help, particularly if a certain skill you aren’t confident in is required for your role. 

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Our brains are wired for growth. In order to do this, we have to be in the right place psychologically, and this is why developing a growth mindset can be useful. 

How to develop a growth mindset for learning

Think for a moment about your favourite streaming service, YouTube channel or blog.  What draws you to it?  To ensure you keep coming back, there needs to be a range of content tailored to your preferences as an audience member. 

When it comes to online learning, the need for a variety of high-quality content is exactly the same, but this goes beyond satisfying consumer demands. 

A selection of learning content and activities can be the difference between an engaging workplace learning experience, or your colleagues checking off yet another item on the growing to-do list.

With this in mind, let’s explore why variety is a key element to engaging your colleagues in learning. 

Knowing what makes an online course engaging is the key to convincing your colleagues to take time out of their busy schedules for learning. When you provide staff with content they can really connect with, they are far more likely to see the upside, and this will create momentum. 

As part of this process, it is important to offer a variety of learning content. Here, we explain how you can use variety to make the learning experience more meaningful for your colleagues:

Engage participants using multiple types of learning experience 

Multiple types of learning experience are important if a participant is to remain engaged with learning content. 

For example, you might look for courses that include a variety of activity types. One part of a lesson might ask participants to watch a video and record their thoughts.  The follow up task might be to apply this new knowledge in the workplace and reflect on the process.

Learners also take on new information best when it is broken down into bite-sized chunks.  If the content you choose includes a range of tasks and activity types, it will definitely tick this box. 

      2.  Provide participants with the opportunity to use different thinking skills

 In order for a learning experience to be engaging, participants also need to use a wide range of thinking skills.  

Certain tasks will require more brain power from learners than others, and a good online course will ensure activities encourage different types of thinking.

For example, activities which ask participants to be more creative or to problem solve will be far more engaging and result in deeper learning. 

However, sometimes participants will simply need to recall facts.  This process is less engaging but necessary for certain topics.

All you need to remember when making a selection is that the best courses will include activities with a range of thinking skills.     

      3.  Appeal to different personality types and interests

Each of your colleagues will have different personality types and interests.  If you have access to a variety of learning content, you will automatically appeal to a broader range of people. 

Participants will also have the option to explore content at their own pace.  For example, if they are interested in the content covered in course A over course B, they can select that which is more relevant and interesting to them.  

      4.  Factor in a personalised learning journey

Some courses will do this better than others, or perhaps include features which enable you to integrate learning with platforms your workforce uses regularly.

Giving your colleagues access to a wide range of learning materials will help to make the process more tailored to their learning needs.

      5.  Create an authentic learning experience

The most useful learning experiences will be those relevant to your colleagues’ professional context and aspirations. 

Many online courses include practical stories, which are particularly important for workplace training. 

If the learning content you select includes a range of practical examples and ways for participants to apply their learning in the real world, their experience is far more likely to be both authentic and useful. 

When a participant takes a course, they will also generate ideas and questions along the way.  With a variety of content to choose from, they can select material to explore ideas or thoughts as they pop up.

With Go1 Premium, you’ll have unlimited access to a growing library containing thousands of learning resources, from top training providers around the world - all in one easy subscription.  

Why learners need a variety of content to stay engaged

Throughout our lives, and often at pivotal moments, we need support from a guide with life experience. Having a mentor to help you navigate a period of growth can make all the difference, and point you towards decisions that are best for you.  

Everyone can remember that teacher they really clicked with, who showed them a whole new perspective on life, or even ignited their passion for a certain subject.

Mentors are proven to be beneficial in both our professional and private lives. 75% of executives say mentoring has been critical to their development, and mentoring programs are known to add value to larger organisations.

With this in mind, we will be looking in more detail at what a mentor is and how they can help you on your path to professional and personal success. 

In a professional context, a mentor is a person experienced in their field who shares wisdom with a protégé or younger person. They actively take an interest in the younger person’s development. While a mentor doesn’t have to be older than their mentee, this is the dynamic in the majority of cases. 

When defining the role, it is important to distinguish between that of a mentor and a coach. While the concepts are similar, a mentor provides counsel or guidance, whereas a coach will instruct or train. 

The benefits of mentorship are widely documented. It has been shown to improve career outcomes, employee engagement, and employee retention to name a few, and there is extensive evidence that it improves organisations as a whole.  

In his book, Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped, comedian, writer and podcaster, Russell Brand, writes about eight mentors who have appeared in his life.  He reflects on his relationships with them and how they have enabled him to grow. He describes a mentor as, “somebody who can take you to the frontier of yourself.”

1. Highlight where your talents truly lie

Understanding where your true talents lie can be challenging at times.  Professionally, you may be in a position that demands a wide range of skills, not all of which you are equipped for. This can mask our talents and make it more difficult to know where we should direct our energy. 

While you may know where your strengths lie, a mentor can help you to work with this and focus on your natural abilities. They can also teach you how to apply them to your work, or redefine your career to play to your strengths. 

The right mentor can offer you an untapped fountain of wisdom. It is most likely that they have had the benefit of being in your position before, and have been through a process of growth to get to where they are today.  

This experience gives them inside knowledge that can be valuable to you.  Their guidance can show you how to take steps forward, while also carving out your own path.

As human beings, we are susceptible to second guessing ourselves and being afraid to put ourselves out there.  While negative self-talk is useful from an evolutionary perspective to save us from sticky situations, in the relatively safe and comfortable modern world, it can be quite destructive and limiting.  

A mentor can encourage you to challenge your thought processes, especially the negative thinking loops you might find yourself in.

As well as highlighting your strengths, a good mentor can develop your self-awareness and show you when you are at your best.  Self-knowledge is an ongoing and difficult journey throughout life (never not learning!), so having a guide at various points along the way can be very worthwhile.

Your mentor will likely be experienced in the field you wish to progress in, and have years of experience.  Over time, they will have gained a long list of contacts, many of whom could help you develop further.  If you are transitioning to a new line of work, this could be particularly helpful as you are effectively starting out again. 

It is clear that working with a mentor has advantages. But how do you go about finding one?

Unfortunately, finding a mentor isn’t necessarily an easy process.  It often happens organically between two people, and grows into a mentorship without being formalised. As Russell Brand explains, a mentor also needs to be, “somebody you can realistically emulate.” 

Nonetheless, you can first identify an area of growth you would like to focus on, then make connections with people you think could help you to move forward.  Over time, these relationships might develop into a mentor-mentee dynamic.

Many larger organisations run mentoring programs, which benefit both the mentor and mentee.  It can be equally rewarding to share hard-earned knowledge and wisdom, and those taking on mentors might even learn a thing or two from their protégés! Overall, it is a win-win relationship. 

Five benefits of finding your perfect mentor 

One of the most important factors instructional designers consider when developing eLearning material is the user experience.  Online courses are created with the learner in mind - the objective is for them to gain knowledge they didn’t have prior to taking the course.

Despite this, it can be hard to find high-quality, engaging learning content that goes beyond learners ticking the necessary boxes.

When information is presented in an interesting, attention-grabbing way, this can be the difference between the learner being able to apply their new found knowledge, and forgetting it completely after completing the course.  

We recently looked at how to assess learners’ engagement in online courses. Regularly assessing learner engagement is crucial to a successful learning and development strategy.

In this article, we will explore how to select engaging online content and the features you can look for to help with this process. 

Depending on the quality of the learning culture in your organisation, it can be challenging to convince your colleagues that taking time out of their busy schedules for learning can be beneficial. 

Knowing what makes an online course engaging is the key to combating this. When you provide staff with learning they can really connect with, they are far more likely to see the upside, and this will create momentum. When searching for the right content for your team, start by asking the following questions:

Personalising learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to simplify this process.

Having to listen to a familiar concept being taught in great detail is neither engaging or useful. When the average employee has only 24 minutes per week to learn, even slightly irrelevant content is a waste of precious time. 

2. Are opportunities for active learning included?

Active learning involves any activities which encourage the learner to participate in learning beyond consuming media, such as text or videos. 

When learners are actively engaged with a task, they will need to use high order thinking skills to complete it. These include applying new knowledge to practical contexts, or using the knowledge they have gained in a creative way. 

An example of an “active” task would be to ask the learner to read a text and record five key points as they do so. It doesn’t have to be complicated, it just needs to go beyond basic consumption of information to be more interesting. 

3. Does the course have clear learning objectives?

Clear learning objectives are essential to any well-designed lesson. Without them, the purpose of the learning can easily go astray, and the learner will become disengaged quickly.

It is also important that these objectives are referenced throughout a lesson, not just at the beginning. This way, the learner can stay on track as they complete each activity, and reflect on whether or not they have achieved that objective. If they haven’t, they might need to revisit a section of learning or do further research.  

When assessing the quality of learning objectives, look for action verbs that describe what the learner will be able to do by the end of the course.

It is also important not to confuse learning objectives with learning goals, which are longer term and less defined. Objectives are included to give structure to a specific lesson or course. 

Practical stories help to put learning in context, and are particularly important for workplace training. One of the main goals of staff training is for the participants to be able to apply their knowledge in a practical context. Acknowledging this during the learning process makes the transition from online to real-life scenarios much easier. 

Stories also give learners a familiar context to work with. This forms a great basis for gaining new knowledge and information, as they can make connections between new information and situations they already understand. 

This might seem obvious but the success of an online course is highly reliant on the quality of visual design. Jorge Reyna, scholar of digital media for learning at the University of Technology Sydney, explains that, “design aesthetics have a profound impact on how users perceive information and learn, judge credibility and usability, and ultimately assign value to an online experience.”

Pay attention to the quality of visual content and the learners will reap the benefits. 

How to choose engaging content for workplace learning

As those responsible for workplace training know, it can be difficult to find high-quality, engaging eLearning content. 

It can be equally challenging to know whether your colleagues find the learning process insightful, or if they are just ticking the necessary boxes.

When looking at how to address a growing need for learning within an organisation, regularly assessing learner engagement is crucial to a successful learning and development strategy.

If employees find the learning content interesting, they are far more likely to take new information on board and be able to apply it to practical situations. 

With this in mind, we have looked at the best ways to measure learner engagement, and which strategies you can use to assess the quality of a learning experience.

What does an engaged learner look like? 

Learner engagement reflects the quality and quantity of a learner’s participation in their courses. It is a measure of how successful a learning experience is for each individual. 

When reviewing how engaged your colleagues are in a course they are taking, look out for the following signs that they are both enjoying the process and on track to learn something new. An engaged learner will be:

Actively engaged - when a learner is enjoying a course, they will actively take part in the process. They might ask questions, or do further research of their own to explore a concept. 

Eager to participate - there are a few signs that a learner is excited to take part in a course or lesson. If you are present while the learning is taking place, their body language and general attitude will give you very quick feedback as to how they are finding the process. If they are completing the learning in their own time, well-structured follow up surveys and feedback will also give you clear indicators.

Willing to expend effort - an engaged learner will go beyond the bare minimum to participate in training. They will strive to do well in the course they are taking, and log in to the training platform regularly. 

Motivated - if a learner is motivated, they will be both willing to expend effort and are eager to participate without too much extra encouragement. They’ll be keen to find out what they’re learning, and eager to engage with new material.

Inspired - this can be a little more difficult to achieve when there is so little time for learning at work, but there is nothing better than a colleague being inspired by a course or lesson they have taken. Being given the opportunity to learn something inspiring will also make them feel valued and happier in their work. 

While data on the LMS dashboard will tell part of the story of learner engagement, the following strategies will give a more in-depth understanding of the learning experience in your organisation:

As your colleagues start engaging with an online course, organise a time to catch up with a few of them to ask key questions about their learning experience. Ask them to be as honest as possible! While surveys are useful, conversations with a few, carefully selected people will provide you with a more in-depth understanding.

Although some eLearning courses will come with in-built feedback features, you might like to design your own surveys to ensure that the learning content is meeting the specific needs of your team. While the majority of content is targeted to specific industries, each organisation is unique and the learning might need to be adapted to suit your context.

Your LMS dashboard is a great place to assess learner engagement. The login and completion rates can be helpful, as if these are low, it could be a sign that the content isn’t quite the right fit. 

If you are seeing low numbers, a few other issues could be the cause. The content might have been engaging, but perhaps the learners found it difficult to use. Maybe they didn’t have enough time to complete it. You may need to do some further digging, but finding out will be beneficial in the long run.  

Although time constraints are a factor with workplace training, finding opportunities to observe learners using their new knowledge or skills in a real-life context can help to determine whether a course has been successful. For example, if you have organised a course for compliance in your hospitality business, look for practical opportunities to check whether your colleagues are able to apply the new knowledge. You could do this through observing their process at work, or chatting with them informally as they complete a task. 

How to assess learners’ engagement in training

When the average employee has only 24 minutes per week to learn, there is an increasing demand for learning to be delivered in manageable, easy to access formats.

Micro-learning is defined as the breaking down of information into topical, bite sized chunks. By engaging with information in such short bursts, the likelihood of retention is increased, making the time spent learning more efficient. 

Having already been hugely beneficial in the fast-paced corporate training arena, micro-learning tools are continuing to shape the ever-changing landscape of learning in the digital age. 

Micro-learning is a relatively new phenomenon in the history of corporate training. Around the same time the first smartphone was released, quick snippets of information in the form of videos, quizzes, interviews and talks were becoming increasingly popular. 

The formats and tools used for micro-learning are wide-ranging, including infographics, PDFs, eBooks, flipbooks, animated videos and whiteboard animation.

These tools have benefits over more in-depth eLearning courses, as they are more digestible and easier to complete quickly. They can also be accessed anytime, anywhere.  

Additionally, they are better value and low-cost to produce, which is great news for learning and development professionals with tight budgets to consider! 

Globally renowned industry analyser and research analyst, Josh Bersin, describes a new paradigm emerging in corporate training. He labels this, ‘learning in the flow of work’, which means presenting employees with opportunities to learn through platforms they are already using to work.

The advent of micro-learning tools is paving the way for such advances, as they enable employees to quickly view new material while they are logging in, or engaging with a regular activity in their daily routine.				      										

How to make the most of micro-learning tools

There is no doubt that micro-learning is already having a massive impact in the corporate training sector, but how can learning and development professionals support employees to use the tools effectively? 

These tips will help your colleagues to make the most of the learning tools on offer to them, while respecting the limited amount of time they have:

It is important for learners to take ownership of their training where possible and identify topic areas they may need more assistance with. Using the diagnostic assessment tools available on the LMS dashboard, either instructors or learners can decide which pieces of information they need to view next, and gain knowledge in a targeted way. 

Micro-learning tools are designed to be easy to engage with and snappy. This makes the information easier to digest, but recording the key points after watching a video or looking at an infographic will help learners to further embed the new knowledge. Your colleagues can do this by putting the information into their own words, perhaps by taking notes, creating an audio recording of their thoughts or drawing a mind map.  Encourage them to pick a tool that works best for them. 

An important part of learning new information is engaging with it actively. Watching a video to learn something, while beneficial, is a fairly passive activity, so it is important to engage with the information on another level. Encourage your colleagues to ask questions, or to be curious about the information they have just learned. Do they agree with it all? Or do they have further questions?

Talking about learning with others or sharing knowledge is also an important part of embedding new information. Where appropriate, it might be helpful to give staff opportunities to share and discuss what they have been learning about that week as an opportunity to extend the learning further and swap new thoughts and ideas. 

Finding out what your employees think of the eLearning process in your organisation is also crucial to their ongoing engagement. If a particular course was too easy or too difficult, it is unlikely that they will take an interest in the rest of the content. 

With learning content becoming more condensed and widely available, staying focused without getting distracted is important.  There might also be a temptation to use learning tools to procrastinate. Avoid this by tagging learning time onto the end of particular routines or activities employees are already completing.  

Learners can use diagnostic data to understand if there are any topics they need to learn more about. They can do further independent research if necessary, or perhaps complete an additional online course.

If training is disseminated in large groups, it is unlikely to have the same impact as a more personalised approach. Micro-learning tools are helping to facilitate a more tailored learning experience for different individuals. 

The benefits of micro-learning tools for employee learning

You are about to deliver a team presentation and have been anticipating it for the last month. Although you are well-prepared, a feeling of dread washes over you - at least it will be over in an hour’s time!

This situation will be familiar to many, and while you can learn to become a more confident public speaker, you’ll still need to practice and learn to sit with the uncomfortable sensations. 

No matter how you feel about addressing a large group, research suggests that one of the quickest ways to improve your confidence in any situation is to make small alterations to your body language. 

It is tricky to be aware of how you hold yourself, especially if you sit at a computer for most of the day. Nonetheless, checking in and making a few small adjustments could make you both feel better, and communicate to others that you are self-confident and have a positive mindset. 

Social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, discusses how body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves.

In her popular Ted Talk, she argues that “power-posing” - standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident - can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success.

In her study, participants sat either in a high-power pose (in an expansive position) or a low-power pose (leaning inward or legs crossed) for two minutes. Cuddy found that those who sat in high-power poses performed better in mock interviews than those who had adopted the low-power poses. 

The two key takeaways from her research were that those who sat in high-power poses not only felt more powerful, but that the poses actively changed their body chemistry.

The New Zealand rugby team performing the haka before every international game is a great example of expansive, powerful body language in action.  

How your team can build confidence through body language