Month: July 2017

This assignment was eye opening for me. At the time I wrote this, I was in the mindset of simply sharing my opinions and thoughts, not fully understanding the scope of what APA was or how to use it. As I read through this again and hear “how do you know this to be true?” ringing in my ears, I feel that my path to becoming an academic writer is starting to move in the right direction!

The symposium was a very enlightening and encouraging collection of information. I felt that it completely aligned with the direction my organization is taking towards an open learning environment. The “cluttered and messiness” of online communities spoke all too well to the learning curve I am having with this shift in corporate training. This was the first time I was introduced to the concept of “Rhizomatic” learning and found it very intriguing. I like the notion of considering learning as an on-going process with no real beginning or end. In my field I do not oversee structured training (like health and safety or first aid etc.) so I have the opportunity to look at how a rhizomatic learning process could benefit the audience I create and manage content for. A few of the current students shared their research as it relates to corporate training and specifically when it comes to knowledge retention through face-to face training versus E-Learning . The exploration in how effective the different strategies are and how to maximize effectiveness resonated with me as I am currently working on how to redesign our corporate training strategy to best suit our millennial learner.

I agreed with the concepts discussed in the presentation from Dr. Roland Van Oostveen about Teacher Control versus Learner Management. This is something I have been researching and discussing quite often in my workplace in terms of how our internal learning management system will (or will not) evolve. I believe that the future engagement of learners will have a lot to do with how much control they have in their own learning journey, especially when it comes to the digitally savvy millennial learner. The concept I agree most with is that self-directive and collaborative learning will encourage a lifetime of learning and information retention.  The evidence in my workplace is that we are seeing a lack of interest in our formal mandatory course path. Our young, busy, and highly stimulated learner has expressed that the long, drawn out training video format we have used in the past, simply does not interest or encourage them to continue watching (or to retain the information). The approach we have started to move towards has been around short digestible “just in time” training video segments that are posted in a timely and relevant manor and no longer deemed as mandatory. These segments are no longer than 90 seconds long and always have a clear and relevant message. Our internal customer (retail sales staff), now have the opportunity to watch as they wish and create their own “playlist” or “training journey” to suit their needs. We have seen an extraordinary amount of trackable views and interactive participation from the group. The retail staff can ask real time questions and interact with their colleagues through chat function that compliments the video portal while creating their own training schedule and mode of ingesting content. There is however, an opportunity I see for my workplace after listening to some of these presentations, which is to create the opportunity for the learner to produce content and share it with their peers. This would essentially give them the opportunity to be invested not only in their learning journey but also those of others. This supports the notion discussed in the symposium about instructor control vs learner management and how giving the learner the opportunity to be part of their learning journey and also interacting and collaborating with others throughout the process. By removing all power from the teacher (in my case corporate trainers), the audience can become more engaged with the material.