What is In-person learning?

In-person learning describes traditional ILT (instructor-led training) where the trainer or facilitator is in the same room as the participants.  Participants share ideas, learn and collaborate using conventional training methods such as table group discussions, flip-charting, role plays, and more.

What is Virtual learning?

vILT (virtual instructor-led training) is where the trainer is live, with participants remotely learning via Zooms, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, or another platform.  Participants engage in the learning much as they would in an in-person learning and use technology tools such as chat, polls, surveys, and external collaboration tools such as Miro, Slack, ClickUp, Lucidspark and more.

What is Hybrid learning?

Hybrid learning is where participants are not restricted to attending a class (in-person learning) but can attend virtually. For example, in a corporate environment, employees designated to work from the office are combined with those assigned to work from home.  Instructors, facilitators, and trainers conduct the session with both types of learners at the same time using tools such as video conferencing. In addition, program materials are available to both in-person and remote participants.

Bloom’s Taxonomy & Instructional Design

Learning goals can be viewed from a behavioral standpoint. When instructional designers work with subject matter experts (SMEs) to create courses, they can see what students can do due to the instruction they have received at each level.

Courses can be designed with appropriate content and instruction to lead learners up the learning pyramid using categorization. Instructional designers can also design useful assessment tools (such as quizzes) to ensure that each category is met. As a result, each part of the course material is in line with the level’s objectives.

In a corporate setting, several stages are frequently interconnected and blend into one another. Learners may be unfamiliar with Bloom’s taxonomy, and if the instructional design is sound, there is little need for a learner to know the underpinning theoretical basis to a lesson. Still, on occasions, it can help them fill the gap between their knowledge and learning requirements to achieve a higher level of knowledge and perform better at work.

Bloom’s taxonomy is used for creating measurable goals, which is ideal for corporate learning and development. The learner will gain a new skill or level of domain expertise if the framework is followed correctly. Instructional designers will effectively assess this learning as the course progresses through each stage of the framework.

How Bloom’s Theory Can Aid in Course Design

The course objectives are too broad. Instead, we demonstrate mastery of one-course level objectives by combining several lesson level objectives. To come up with good course-level objectives, we must first ask ourselves, “What do I want the participants to do differently at end of the course?” Because it explains the learning process, Bloom’s taxonomy is an effective tool for developing learning objectives.

• Before you can comprehend a concept, you must first remember it.
• You must first know and comprehend a concept before you can put it into practice.
• Before you can evaluate a process, you must first analyze it.
• To come up with an accurate conclusion, you must first conduct a thorough investigation.

Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Cognitive Domain (original)

Seven Instructional Design Principles

Robert Gagne was an American educational psychologist who made significant contribution to the development of the science of instruction in the mid-twentieth century. He believed that there were patterns in how people process information and proposed a framework that referred to each of the elements needed for effective learning, which organizations can apply for better training and development. Here are seven of his principles:

 1. Gain Attention

The most crucial part when it comes to providing the learners with better training and development is being able to engage them throughout the learning experience. The instructional design of your training and development program should be highly engaging and make the learner disengage from other tasks and focus their attention solely on the training material.

Following are some ways you can ensure the learners stay engaged throughout the training and development program:

• Share and unexpected fact or statistic
• Pose thought-provoking questions
• Offer an activity that involves learners in the training and development process

Some ways to gain the attention of the learners effectively are:

• Include a video clip: adding video clips to your instructional design can help engage your learners on both – an auditory and visual level.
• Add a survey question: you can add a survey question to gain the learner’s attention. For example, use a survey question such as “What skill sets do you hope to achieve from this training and development program?”

 2. Ensure Learners Are Aware of the Objectives

An excellent way of making a better training and development program with your instructional design is by communicating the objects with your learners. This way, the learners are aware of what to expect from the course and how it can be beneficial for them.

You can do so by outlining each step of the training and development course and mentioning the goals and objectives of these steps. Furthermore, ensure your learners are aware of the expected standard of their performance and what a successful outcome of the training and development program looks like.

 3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Learning

The instructional design can create a training and development program for your learners by linking the content to the learners’ existing knowledge or skills. This allows the learners to get into each step of the program and materials with confidence. Furthermore, you can include short summaries that describe the knowledge or concepts the learners have already mastered.

For example, the instructional design can add a quiz in the training and development to remind the learners of the knowledge or concepts they already know. This is an excellent way of creating a better training and development program for your learners.

4. Present New Content

In this principle, you provide the learners with new knowledge, information, and skills. A brilliant way to do so is by including relevant images, graphs, videos, tables, and graphics in the training and development course, which helps the learners visualize and understand each concept with more depth.

Following are a few ways to present new content to learners:

• Build a slide-based course: create power-point presentations to deliver content that includes all the materials for training and development.
• Create a video course: you can include a training video in the course. For example, you can record yourself delivering a lecture, add images, captions, infographics, and create transition effects through instructional design.

 5. Provide Learning Guidance

The following instructional design principle for better training and development support the learners by providing them with hints on how to learn skills. For example, you can give them examples or coach them on the learning content with the help of resources available.

You can provide learning guidance with resources such as case studies, infographics, job aids, concept maps, and much more in the training and development course.

 6. Produce Performance

By the time you apply the sixth instructional design to your training and development program, the learners must be able to demonstrate or communicate the knowledge and skills they have acquired from the program. The training and development program must include interactive elements that the learners can use to practice their knowledge.

 7. Provide Feedback

The seventh instructional design principle for better training and development is to provide feedback immediately to the learners once they have demonstrated their knowledge and skills. With positive feedback, the learner becomes aware of where they are doing well, and constructive feedback or advice can help them recognize where they lack and what obstacles they need to overcome.

2. Why good learning design and measurement matter

Good processes around instructional design can be established by first identifying the individual’s learning needs and outcomes, then aligning them with the organizational learning objectives. Effective structures can then be built around the concurrent objectives of both the individual and the organization to develop learning that is motivating and will deliver a higher retention rate.

It is imperative that a learning program is developed from the outset with measurement in mind. Measuring learning can only occur when a program is set-up to be measured by way of measurable learning objectives and in-program measurement through learning and review activities. “Too often, measurement is left until the end, as an afterthought,” Dr Lever says, “which means that it’s not measurement at all, but rather a qualitative review, based on feelings, much like we would provide to a restaurant or hotel.”

True measurement of a learning intervention, in turn, feeds back into better learning design, resulting in more strategic investment from L&D executives and, most importantly, better organizational outcomes overall, due to the successful application of training and learning.

How learning can be designed better

Sound instructional design processes that factor in the principles of adult learning are critical to learning success and retention. By dictating the flow of the learning intervention early, the learner is better able to achieve their potential for effective learning transfer.

As mentioned in the introduction, the operational costs of unsuccessful learning transfer have become a strong motivator for change in corporate learning. Many of these costs come from poor measurement of results and outcomes, with no tangible way of identifying organizational learning value.

The formulaic approach to L&D strategy is becoming a thing of the past and deeper levels of customization are now seen as a necessity, where previously they may have been considered a luxury.

In a traditional organizational environment, managers focus on achieving strategic goals and objectives and meeting the core deliverables around the training and professional development of their team. This approach leaves little scope for creative thinking and around learning experience design. As a result, corporate learning programs are notorious for being complex, unengaging, and bland – a reality that is all too often reflected in the outcomes for both the individual and the organization.

It is possible, though, to create balanced programs to suit all learners. When organizations build, deliver, and measure their training with a structured and comprehensive approach, the high-quality training programs that emerge ensure better outcomes, better learning application, and exceptional results.

Why measurement is essential

Making measurement a key priority is essential in identifying the learning value and ensuring it’s aligned with and in support of the identified strategic corporate goals. Measuring the results – both tangible and intangible becomes the foundation stone of how learning interventions are developed, applied, and invested in by the organization, moving forward.

When measurement is prioritized, the whole learning design process is transformed. Assessing the results, reading into the analytics, and designing vital, meaningful corporate learning programs in response to that data has a two-fold effect. First, it gives credibility to the proposed interventions, justifying further investment, and learning application outcomes are strengthened, creating a culture of positive high-performance learning.

If done well and successfully, the ongoing measurement of any learning intervention’s tangible and intangible results will become standard organizational practice. This point offered profound relevance to Dr. Lever. “For organizational learning to be legitimized in the eyes of senior management and therefore be continually supported, learning analytics must be realized. This requires measuring learning outcomes that directly relate to an individual employees’ development and the organization’s strategic plan.”