The Language of Learning Term of the Week postings begin on October 16, 2003, and continue for one year. Each week, we will post a new term on this site.
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A statement of one or more goals of a learning experience that identifies the specific knowledge, skills, or behaviors that a learner should be able to demonstrate after the learning experience.
Learning objectives are the foundation upon which a curriculum is based, and good clear learning objectives can be critical for creating good instruction. Sometimes, designers differentiate between learning objectives
and performance objectives
but learning design for adults should be guided by the concrete, visible behaviors that the learner will actually need to perform in the real world.
Developing learning objectives is one place where a business professional can collaborate with learning professionals to ensure that the business goals for the organization align with the educational offerings the organization offers.
Collaboration between business and learning professionals can create learning objectives that will guide the curriculum development process. Good learning objectives help you eliminate unnecessary content that doesn’t support your business objectives. Learning objectives also help you focus the learner’s attention, evaluate the effectiveness of training, and establish performance standards.
A single set of learning objectives may not serve all those purposes, and you may need to have different versions of learning objectives for different audiences or purposes.
Business professionals can also benefit from learning objectives because they document the goals of a training activity and provide a benchmark for assessing the value of training.
Julie Dirksen is a consultant and instructional designer with more than 20 years’ experience creating interactive e-Learning experiences. She loves brains, and games and evidence-based practice, and her current focus is the science of behavior change. She wrote the book Design For How People Learn, and she’s happiest whenever she gets to learn something new.
Term: Learning Objectives
Email: julie@usablelearning.com
Website: usablelearning.com
Twitter: @usablelearning
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliedirksen/
A software application used to administer, track, report, and deliver training to a range of learners, including internal employees, software users, and university students.
Learning management systems (LMS) make it easier to disperse knowledge to multiple audiences and make eLearning more efficient, scalable, and effective. LMS technology is evolving, and with newer technologies, they are becoming more widely used in the corporate environment.
A large part of how businesses create value is through distributing knowledge. Knowledgeable employees are able to effectively help their customers, knowledgeable customers are able to successfully use the business’s products, and knowledgeable prospective customers are able to confidently choose the right product in the first place. A learning management system helps businesses systematically store, deliver, and track content so they can more effectively distribute knowledge.
If your company does not have an LMS, you should investigate to see if one can help your company. If you do much in-house training, the odds are that one will.
If your company has an LMS, then you should gain at least a basic understanding of its capabilities and its impact on your business. This enables you to take advantage of those capabilities to increase your knowledge, and the knowledge of your employees.
Capabilities vary by vendor, what features have been purchased, and what level of access you are allowed to have. If you know the features that are available to you, you can make the best possible use of your LMS.
Phily Hayes has worked on 100s of LMS implementations from the vendor side and spoken at multiple conferences internationally on the topic.
Term: Learning Management System
Email: phily@zerve.ai
A set of tools, processes, templates, and conventions that ensure that the materials created to support learning in an organization are consistently designed, developed, deployed, and tracked in support of business goals.
Learning takes resources. To obtain the resources needed to sustain a learning culture, you need to think strategically about how you will use those resources. Having a strategy with respect to learning content standards helps ensure that decisions about allocating resources are always made in the context of the bigger picture.
Business professionals know that learning is a key strategic activity. However, learning departments are under pressure to reduce costs and justify their spending. Because they are a cost center, they must have a demonstrable strategy as to how they deliver value and manage costs. Having solid learning content standards helps ensure that their investment is worthwhile and reflects the needs of the business.
Learning content standards help leverage the power of these technologies:
Adam Weisblatt is passionate about building the resilience of learning and development organizations so they can create business value. Adam has experience in all aspects of workplace learning and a proven track record of implementing global enterprise-wide projects using an agile, collaborative, and creative approach to meeting organizational needs. He has the ability to analyze systems, processes, and team dynamics and uses outstanding visuals and storytelling to explain them to a wide audience. He provides consulting and design services for companies throughout their digital transformation. Adam speaks at conferences and writes for industry magazines. He is also a cartoonist and puppeteer.
Term: Learning Content Standards
Email: adamjweisblatt@gmail.com
Twitter: @weisblatt
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adamjweisblatt/
Collecting and curating knowledge from experienced workers and sharing it with others, especially those who will continue their work.
Experienced workers possess vast knowledge about their jobs and roles. When these workers leave, whether through retirement or other reasons, their work still must continue. Without some form of knowledge transfer, all that collective knowledge walks away with them.
Knowledge transfer helps businesses identify, understand, and document what must be done, so operations continue after an experienced worker leaves.
Knowledge transfer isn’t just about writing step-by-step procedures on how to carry out a particular function. It also entails any activity in which experienced workers share their knowledge, including mentoring, videos, and even informal chats.
Although many aspects of knowledge transfer relate to older generations who are beginning to retire from the workplace, the term experienced worker pertains to anyone, regardless of age, who has significant experience in a particular realm.
Knowledge transfer is not just sharing the what or how but also why things are done. When businesses can tap into this collective wisdom, they will have not only clear-cut documentation for others to follow but also building materials through which to analyze the big picture, so they can potentially streamline processes or see where to allocate resources more efficiently.
Be aware that some workers may feel threatened by being asked to share what they know. They may fear that their jobs will become obsolete or, worse, that they will be made to feel useless. Although knowledge transfer is vital to continuing operations, it’s crucial to remember that we are dealing with people first and foremost. Businesses must remain sensitive to these feelings and reassure experienced workers that they are not simply being siphoned for their knowledge and later discarded.
Overall, knowledge transfer helps businesses not only capture knowledge but also potentially identify more efficient processes. Ultimately, successful knowledge transfer can save money and time because of these efficiencies and the ease with which successors can pick up the torch.
Jamye Sagan has over 15 years of technical communication experience. As the pharmacy communication advisor for H-E-B (Texas-based grocery chain), she helps design training programs and deliverables, while managing communications between corporate and retail. Jamye also volunteers with the Society for Technical Communication in various capacities and has spoken about instructional design, all while sharing her love of knitting, Harry Potter, and cats. She lives in San Antonio, TX.
Term: Knowledge Transfer
Email: jamye.sagan@gmail.com
Twitter: @gimli_the_kitty
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamye-sagan-15416434/
Facebook: facebook.com/jamye.sagan
The way learning content is presented to learners. Possibilities include in-person, lecture, digital, electronic, synchronous, asynchronous, and more.
Delivery mode is important because the right delivery mode can help showcase content more effectively and facilitate learning and retention. While it is often considered a static concept that is either a designated location or type of technology, delivery mode is neither static nor one size fits all. Instead, the delivery mode should be chosen based on what is to be learned and the needs of the learners. Delivery mode can also be combination of two or more modes, often referred to as taking a blended approach.
Business professionals need to have an understanding of delivery modes so they can work with learning and development professionals to select the best delivery mode(s) for their needs. Factors to consider when selecting a delivery mode include:
Knowing the responses to these considerations can help you or your instructional designer assess how best to present the content. Methods for presenting content include the following:
For nearly 20 years, John Vivolo has dedicated his career to online learning. His experience includes being an instructor, instructional designer, educational technologist, director of an award-winning online learning unit at New York University (NYU) and, more recently, executive director at the Katz School of Science and Health. John is currently all-but-dissertation in the EdD program at Northeastern University.
Term: Delivery Mode
Email: johnvivolo@yahoo.com
Twitter: @vivolojohn
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnvivolo/
Any sequence of planned activities or experiences that enables learners to explore materials, practice what they have learned, and achieve proficiency.
Central to all learning experiences, a curriculum provides the core structure that guides learners on their path to meet set goals. In other words, a curriculum helps learners learn by creating a framework that communicates performance standards, key learnings, methods, projects, relevant metrics, evaluation plans, etc.
Imagine trying to assemble a structure without a cohesive plan. Yes, it is possible to build something, but how will you measure progress along the way? And how will you be able to recreate what was built later?
Creating a curriculum is creating a plan that lays out a set of expectations to help learners build towards their goals. The curriculum might include a sequence of courses, internships, mentorships, coaching sessions, or immersive simulations that, in essence, serve as the building blocks of learning.
Establishing a curriculum, in alignment with business or educational goals, provides a roadmap that enables learners to progress along learning pathways in support of their own or organizational growth. Alignment also enables learning leaders to invest in the future of their people in the organization and report to stakeholders on how their educational programs support the mission and vision of the organization.
Bryan Alexander is an education and technology futurist. A senior scholar at Georgetown University, he helps colleges, universities, libraries, non-profits, and governments think about where education may be going in the coming decades. Creator of the Future of Education Observatory, Bryan publishes the monthly FTTE trends report, conducts the weekly Future Trends Forum, blogs, and runs an online book club. He speaks, consults, and publishes widely. His latest book is Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis (Johns Hopkins University Press).
Term: Curriculum
Email: bryan.alexander@gmail.com
Website: futureofeducation.us/
Twitter: @bryanalexander
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bryannalexander
Facebook: facebook.com/bryannalexander
Selecting, vetting, organizing, and distributing effective content.
The amount of information available to workers is increasing at an exponential rate. Business professionals have neither the time nor the expertise needed to identify the most valuable content from this seemingly endless flow. Curation selects and presents the most useful, valuable content and makes it available so others don’t need to repeat that effort. In his book Curation Nation(Rosenbaum, 2011), Steven Rosenbaum describes it this way: Curation replaces noise with clarity.
Business professionals should care because curation is emerging as an important competency. In today’s world of work the person who knows everything is no longer the most valuable member of the team; the person who can find and share the answer to anything is.
Museum curators don’t create content. They listen, then find content that resonates. They scour the globe for artifacts related to that content and organize artifacts in such a way that guests are taken on a learning journey as they experience an exhibit. Of course, museum curators are highly trained for doing this. It is their specialty.
Business professionals are finding that curation is an important specialty in their world, too. Curation in the business world starts from the assumption that most questions have already been answered and most problems have already been solved. Curation finds the answers to those questions and the solutions to those problems and makes the results available. Good curation can help your organization and its customers become more efficient both in learning and in everyday operations.
How does curation fit into learning and performance? The most visible form of curation comes from informal learning that takes place on the job through coaching, mentoring, experiences, and sharing. But capturing this type of learning is difficult, because it takes place serendipitously and without documentation. Actively seeking to capture that knowledge and pass it on is valuable both to the company and its employees.
Business professionals can also curate the information they provide to customers to ensure that they do not overwhelm customers with irrelevant information. Curation, as a discipline, can help replace noise with clarity and enable you to deliver solutions faster and more efficiently.
David Kelly is the CEO of The Learning Guild. Before joining the Guild, David has been a learning and performance consultant and training director for over 20 years. He is a leading voice exploring how technology can be used to enhance training, education, learning, and organizational performance.
Term: Curation
Email: dkelly@elearningguild.com
Website: learningguild.com
Twitter: @LnDDave
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lnddave/
Acquiring new information and skills by watching and interacting with others, or on one’s own, apart from or in addition to, traditional formal instruction.
Social learning is participative and might occur in either/both formal and informal environments. However, informal learning is mostly unplanned and impromptu in nature. Social learning is important because much of workplace learning happens in social and informal ways.
While the terms social learning and informal learning (also called tacit knowledge) have seen increased use over the past decade or so, the ideas aren’t new at all. Most of what we know we learned socially. Think about how you learned to speak your native language or how you acquired the skills necessary to abide by unwritten rules and norms in a new workplace. While other means of learning, such as operant conditioning, do play a role—we learn not to touch a hot stove after doing it once—a great deal of what we know comes from moving in the world, engaging with and watching others.
Likewise, much of what we know is learned informally and serendipitously: our parents typically didn’t sit us down and run through flashcards of verb conjugations. Rather, we learned in the moment, as conversations evolved and new situations arose.
These terms are primarily used in education to distinguish them from traditional, formal instruction delivered as structured, one-way teacher-to-student interactions. While many believe that learning must always look like school, it’s important to recognize how pervasive and valid other means of learning are.
Those responsible for employee development efforts as managers, or in workforce development as learning practitioners, can shore up learning by offering ample opportunities for social interaction—both in person and via electronic means—and the time and resources for self-directed acquisition of new information and skills.
Jane Bozarth, EdD, holds a master’s degree in technology in training and a doctorate in training and development. Over the past two decades, she has worked as a classroom designer, trainer, eLearning specialist, social media specialist, and organization research director.
Dr. Bozarth is the author of many books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring and From Analysis to Evaluation. She is a popular conference speaker and appears at many industry events.
Term: eLearning and mLearning Standards Social and Informal Learning
Email: info@bozarthzone.com
Website: bozarthzone.com
Twitter: @JaneBozarth
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janebozarth
Facebook: facebook.com/Bozarthzone
A method of instructor-led teaching that begins with the instructor providing a lot of support (scaffolding) to the learner, then reducing that support as the learner gains proficiency, allowing the learner to become more and more independent.
Scaffolding is important because it allows learners to build from their current knowledge and experiences through temporary, but supportive, learning interactions, which act as building blocks towards the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
Business professionals who implement scaffolding in learning and development initiatives—whether at the group, department, or enterprise level—provide a critical, temporary support that not only enables their workforce to be supported and elevated in their learning acquisition but also provides a metric against which they can measure the effectiveness of those initiatives.
Consider the following:
Not using scaffolding in these contexts can be compared to a learning-and-development professional not integrating scaffolding into learning activities. Without scaffolding, there would be no supports to guide the learner through the learning process.
Most of us need some type of support when learning something new or shoring up our current understanding. When we have learned what is needed, we move up to the next level and don’t need to rely on that support any longer.
Building scaffolding supports into learning and development creates a positive and empowering learning environment.
Jennifer Staley is SVP of Operations of Shoulder2Shoulder, Inc. a Certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. Jennifer has been a talent and organizational development professional for over two decades across multiple industries and has an enthusiasm for continued education and lifelong learning experiences. Jennifer continues to shape her instructional design principles and strategies, her philosophy and vision for learning and performance in both her professional and personal lives.
Term: Scaffolding
Email: staley.jen@gmail.com
Twitter: @jennystaley
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennystaley
Facebook: facebook.com/jennystaley
A team, or individual, approach to that encourages exploration along the path to a solution using real-world, complex problems.
Memorizing the facts and definitions surrounding the knowledge base of a subject is useless if that information cannot be applied in real-world situations. A problem-based learning approach brings real-world problems into the learning process.
Problem-based learning (PBL) takes place in business situations on a daily basis. A group is presented with or discovers a real-world problem that needs to be addressed. Beginning with the end goal in mind the group decides on outcomes and assessments that will show at the end of the process that the problem has been solved. If a scenario isn’t already apparent, creating a real-world scenario of the problem aids in the process by framing the research and information gathering process.
The history of PBL includes education in medical schools where it was sometimes evident that students were well equipped with medical knowledge but lacking in their ability to apply that knowledge in the real world. This gap between knowledge and practice was filled with common and challenging medical problems solved by a group of medical students using discussion and research to come up with a plan to help the patient.
K-12 schools have also embraced PBL for many of the same reasons medical education did. PBL encourages active learning and creativity and places more responsibility on the students with the teacher guiding the learning path.
Ann Musgrove, EdD, is an assistant professor of instructional technology at Florida Atlantic University. Her research interests include best practices in online and face-to-face technology integration, always applied with the philosophy of pedagogy before technology. Some of her ongoing interests include the exploratory installations of technology test kitchens, tools to teach information literacy to fight the propagation of fake news, and exploring 1:1 computing in K-12 classrooms.
Term: Problem-based Learning
Email: musgrove.ann@gmail.com
Website: annmusgrove.com
Twitter: @annmusgrove