MicroLearning Panel

Recently I had the opportunity to be a part of a panel discussion for an international conference in petroleum refining and manufacturers. The panel discussion was focused on "establishing long term memory via microlearning training. Sorry I couldn't get a better pic, but in that image I'm at the top left. We had about 50 folks attend and in terms of microlearning it was fun and hopefully engaging.  

I have a strong history in microlearning training courses, and thanks to the classes I'm taking to get my PhD my experience and understanding is growing. I've set up microlearning modules and courses both for intial training and for reinforcement training. I've set up "passive" microlearning systems and more "active" microlearning courses. I've set up microlearning for various and disparate audiences via multiple different platforms. In my industry, I'm quickly becoming a bit of an expert in microlearning, so it was fun to be a panelist for this international conference.

What surprises me is how worried I get before panel discussions. 

I'm not a newbie at presentations. I give presentations quite often. I think the difference is that panel discussions are so freeform and can go in so many different direcitons that there is alot of variability and you have to stay on your toes. The good news about panels is that whenever things feel like they might get off track it's as easy as pie to say, "Hey Vince, you care to field that question first?" So it's easy to stall for time. 

In the last three panel discussions I've had I have been thrust into the role of moderator too. In most cases this happens naturally, in that the moderator just doesn't show. In the one I had today the moderators system reset and he was absent for the first five minutes. So, up steps Dick to ask questions and answer them at the same time. 

All in all it was great, and several people in the audience reached out to let me know they really enjoyed the discussion. So, alls well that ends well. Plus it keeps me on my toes for my comprehensive exams that come at the end of my PhD course work!

Connectivism

In a former company, we set up a MicroLearning platform to provide leadership training via cell phone delivery for our field leadership. This was a huge hit for the organization but had limited usefulness. We found that MicroLearning (small chunks of training) were not ideal for the primary delivery of the content. We were able to create a powerful network among our leadership teams which was unique and very similar to the idea of "connectivism" that we discussed in our last class.

The "chatbot" method we are currently using is different in that we are using MicroLearning as reinforcement during and after the primary training to help create recall . . . to help move the information from short term and working memory to long term memory. It works just as you mentioned with your daughter. I've found having used both methods, this reinforcement engine is far more effective.

For this, we are using an off the shelf application called "Mobile Coach" to test the waters. My organization's IT department is also working to create our own MicroLearning app that we can use and develop inhouse. Mobile Coach has been terrific to work with, and the app is very easy to set up, but if the system becomes popular the cost will be too great. But you're correct in that being able to provide learning directly to the learner's phone is an ideal way to engage them during and after the training. 

I'm also looking forward to using this technique prior to training as well. Imagine the capability of knowing what class a student is about to take, then sending them information regarding the learning objectives before they take the class. These "MicroLearning Pre-Tests" would help engage them in the training and fine-tune their focus onto the learning objectives for the course. This pre-test compatibility will help them understand what they're getting into, introduce them to the learning objectives before the class, and get them used to using their phones for information exchange. It's a blend of MicroLearning reinforcement and Adaptive Learning techniques. 

Microlearning and Virtual Classroom Panel

I’m actually on a panel next month to discuss effective engagement in virtual classroom environments for industrial and petrochemical manufacturing organizations. I have quite a bit of history with virtual classrooms that continues on now. Below is me and Wendy working on a virtual classroom that we delivered for our organization.  

Most of the content my organization delivers is very short and quick... sometimes less than an hour. The longest course we have is for five days. It is very difficult to find ways like discussion posts which are so critical for learning and have the trainees reflect on the content after the course. When you deal with a college course, where the content is spread out over several weeks and months, it makes more sense to use technology for discussion and self-reflection.

That being said in some of our courses, especially those that last less than a day, we have chatbots that the trainees can use to help reinforce the content immediately upon delivery. We are also experimenting with VR to augment training. Those chatbots or VR exercises would not be very effective in a course like this one. 

However, if I was going to suggest one piece of technology that more than anything else would help classes with long-term memory development I would have to say spaced iterative learning or microlearning. We have been using microlearning technologies to interact with trainees after the training to help reinforce the training objectives after the initial block training is delivered. We’ve tried microlearning for the initial delivery system with less than spectacular results. Also, we are testing our trainees with these microlearning reinforcement moments so they have to re-engage those memory cells and make more resilient memories.  

Microlearning applications that break down block learning into smaller chunks and deliver it directly to the trainees at times when they have more capability to focus on the training help reinforce learning objectives far more than any other technology. 

Another Chance to Self-Author

 I hit a moment the other day . . . a true test of my self-authorship journey. Remember, self-authorship is defined by among other things an ability to see others' perspectives, to be able to understand. Well, the other day, I was not "understanding" in any way . . . I was livid!

Why?

More on MicroLearning with Bernard

I had an interesting chat with a colleague from class, Bernard, the other day. He mentioned how little time there is in his life for class work and reflection. I know I've written about Microlearning before (see here) and reflective practice (see here) but it's worth bringing up again. 

One of the things I've learned through my classes is the importance of what you brought up, reflective practice. Taking the time for reflection and reflective practice is something that I believe is critical to long term memory development. I've tried to boil down what I've learned to my organization is something that we call the R4 Learning Retention process; Rigor, Relevance, Reinforcement and Reflection. Reflection is the hardest I believe to instill. We can ensure that the courses we create are Rigorous, or challenging enough to engage the learner. We can also provide Relevance through real life scenarios and analysis. Reinforcement is easy to provide through knowledge checks, quizzes and exams, but Reflection is tough. How can we ensure that our learners are thinking about training after they get back to their jobs and families. 

I know that when I am done with courses taking time to write about things, reading from others and applying what I know to their own discussion posts, and just generally taking the time to think about the courses, offers a terrific opportunity for reflection. However we usually only have our learners for a few hours to a day. Rarely do we have a chance to interact with our learners for more than a day. 

Last week I had the opportunity to be a part of a panel discussion on microlearning/spaced learning and chatbots. I think more than any other tool the opportunity that these microlearning/spaced learning or chatbots provide offer us the best chance to engage learners after the fact and perhaps activate that reflective moment for them. I've been stunned by how critical reflection is in learning and long-term memory development and how little it is focus on as a part of my organization's overall learning paradigm. 

The 4th Industrial Revolution at HASC

I work for a non-profit, adult learning organization that focuses on training contractors who work in and support the energy industry. HASC has been providing training of this type, to improve safety and craft skills among the contractor community for over 30 years. Over that time the training standards and the expectations of the learners have become staid, stale, and less effective in terms of stimulating learner engagement and recall. Our goal lately is to find new ways to provide training to the learners in a manner that makes it more engaging, and interesting and will resonate with the learners in such a way that the theories and capabilities that they learn will be used and applied to their worksites and in their fieldwork. 

HASC has been working with many technologies to try and improve learner retention and the learner's opportunity to apply their knowledge outside of the learning site. Among these are: (a) virtual reality (VR) exercises that are appended to the traditional computer-based training (CBT) delivery, (b) microlearning modules and chatbots that are delivered directly to the learner through their smartphones, (c) changes to our typical CBT design capabilities to include more animations, videos, interactive slides, and (d) a live online proctoring system to allow learners to take courses at their own time and allow their organization to have the confidence of the integrity of our ID checking and proctoring system that they have in our training site. 

Many of these technologies are perceived as positive by the companies that are HASC's members. The opportunity to provide the same training to their employees wherever they might be and at any time without sacrificing the peace of mind that they will pay attention and not cheat by being proctored has been in high demand for years. VR technologies are also seen by contracting companies as a potential advantage to the typical CBT training. Several contracting agencies and refinery owners have expressed interest in having HASC develop custom VR experiences for their organizations. Microlearning is seen as an interesting and novel idea but has not been embraced by any contracting companies.

The learners however are not embracing the technology as avidly as their contracting organizations. For the most part, our learners do not embrace technological innovation and even those that are designed to work seamlessly with their work and home life are not utilized to even a minor extent. Typically our learners do not want to utilize their personal smartphones, phone numbers, or email addresses for business needs as there is no compensation for their time or effort or for utilizing their equipment. VR exercises, with the mixture of using audio and VR headsets, are tough for them to manage and the joysticks used in the immersive learning environment, and VR storylines are tough for them to understand and negotiate without help.

Spaced practice and microlearning, although not as avidly anticipated, HASC believes has the best opportunity to transform our learning organization and the application of learning in the field by the learners. Transfer of learning takes place when what is taught is used and applied in the field. So often it seems as though our learners leave what they learned at the exit doors. Training takes place at HASC, work is done on the worksite. We are eager to find ways to keep training continuously. As Deloitte (2018) states; executives are focusing not so much on the transformation of current educational institutions but on disruption in the approach to learning - that is, it is no longer about formal education, but about an ongoing process of continually acquiring new skills and knowledge" (p. 13). Our live online proctoring system which allows learners to take courses outside of our brick and mortar building is a sea-change in not only the way that HASC has historically done business but for the entire safety council industry. As Schwab (2016) states, the fourth industrial revolution is "forcing companies to re-examine the way they do business" (p. 5). The challenge for HASC is that our primary differentiator from other training organizations is the integrity of the process. Our developers pressed the boundaries of our technological capabilities to model the live online proctoring system on the established, accepted, process that we've fostered for so many years.

All this being said, HASC has seen that our learners are coming to expect more opportunities for technology to be used as a natural part of their training environments. Digital natives, those who are more adept at working in digital arenas, come to our council and expect more than the standard CBT offering. They demand a higher standard and quality of their learning design and expect more in terms of using technological innovations. We are early adopters of many of these innovations compared to our competitors and it will be interesting to see if the learner's embracing of this technology catches up with their organization's eagerness to see it adopted. 

References

Deloitte. (2018). The fourth industrial revolution is here; Are you ready?  New York: Deloitte

Schwab, K. (2016). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What it means and how to respond. World Economic Forum. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/

Pratt's Transmission Perspective

Reading about Pratt's Five Perspectives on Teaching, I was struck by not just our own transmission perspective on teaching our primary introductory class on refinery basic process safety management (Basic PSM) but also how we as an organization were stumbling toward two of the three keys to engagement without realizing it.

The three keys to engagement the Pratt lists are 1) Fostering active rather than passive engagement, 2) avoiding cognitive overload for the learners and 3) using advance organizers such as conceptual frameworks, big questions and threshold concepts. The ones that our organization are already working on are numbers 1 and 2 above.

In terms of fostering active rather than passive engagement there are two things we do. In our primary offering for PSM we provide a workbook that allows the learner to follow along as the trainer presents concepts and take part in drills and activities. This is something we are leveraging in other classes. We are also using microlearning (small chunks) testing via cell phone chat bots to engage the learners during class and during breaks with tests designed to increase their understanding and generate recall.

These are short test questions that are provided via chat directly to the learners phone on a voluntary basis. They are not the exact test questions they will be presented with on the final exam, but are designed to reinforce the concepts that the learner is being introduced to. We are currently expanding this beyond Basic PSM to include providing chat bots for microlearning testing to several other or our core safety classes.

The development of the above chat bot provides and example of engagement key 2, avoiding cognitive overload. While working with the team to produce the content for the chat bots, I felt that the questions were too simple and easy for the learners. One of my team members had to remind me that I've been working in the field for twenty years and these questions and tests were for learners who had never once worked in the industry. Basic PSM is the primer class that all new employees to the industry must take to begin work in the industry. This same phenomenon was called out by Pratt on page 82, "because cognitive overload occurs faster in beginners than in experienced learners it be difficult for a teacher to estimate how much can be presented, at what pace, and at what point learners are likely to experience cognitive overload. To resolve this dilemma, instructors need to plan and teach from a novices point of view." Thankfully my colleague, who has only worked in the industry for four years reigned me in before we released a chat bot that would have potentially increased our learners cognitive overload and provided greater frustration.

The next step will be to find a way to include the three facets of key aspect number 3, using advance organizers into our Basic PSM class.

The interesting feature of this is that our organization was stumbling toward these solutions despite a lack of formal education. I volunteered to take these classes so that we could determine the best ways to refine our teaching and training to make it more effective. The good news is we don't have as big a gap to fill. The little research we had been doing as an organization on our own was in the midst of addressing and implementing many of the solutions that so far I have learned through this class and my previous class. 

Pratt, D.C., Smulders, D. & Associates. (2016). Five Perspectives on Teaching : Mapping a plurality of the good. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing.

Digital Natives vs. Network Natives

My colleague Melynda wrote a paper about microlearning and learning delivered via smartphone to the learner. This is something we have looked into ourselves, (see HERE, HERE and HERE for a sampling of what I mean). I'm glad she saw in microlearning what I see, an incredibly useful and capable tool that isn't used enough. 

I'm a huge advocate of this. I think it hits a lot of the adult learner needs, convenience, ability to take at any time, anywhere, and if they can share it, then it's more valuable too. I was just reading about "digital natives", and how millennials will expect more digital access, but this article yesterday was more about expectations coming up due to gen Z. Instead of digital natives they will be "network natives."

Hoffman (2022) writes, "My takeaway from all this? Unlike the Millennials who preceded them, members of Gen Z aren’t just digital natives. They are “network natives” who get, implicitly and explicitly, the power of connection. Far from being passive and isolated, they lead lives characterized by participation and community. They know that social media lets them share their voices directly with the world even as it situates them in vast but tightly woven networks of their peers" (p. 2). 

I wonder how a generation of workers who are more attuned to "networks" like Tik-Tok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc react to learning and the work world. We've been trying so hard to meet the needs of "digital natives" how will we meet the needs of "network natives." Hoffman (2022) goes on to write, "network-driven concepts like crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, the sharing economy, and collaborative workflow apps like Slack and Figma aren’t major paradigm shifts for this generation. They are just how the world works" (p. 3).

I see a time when instead of sending learning like you've mentioned to a smartphone, it's accessed through networks of learners who are looking for the same things. It's an interesting article, see the link below.

References

Hoffman, R. (2022, May 20). Welcome to the ‘network generation.’ Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.). https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-the-network-generation-11653053050?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1

Organizations as Brains and Lisa Moments

Chapter for in Images of Organizations by Morgan focuses on oranizations as brains, learning organizations. There were several things in this chapter that I really enjoyed. For the sake of brevity I'll just focus on two.

First of which was the idea expressed on page 108 of requisite variety meaning "the internal diversity of any self-regulating system must match the variety and complexity of its environment." This seems to suggest that extremely complex environments and organizations will have more internal diversity and variety. 

An idea which is counter to the reliance of bureaucracy and red-tape for mechanistic organizations, where the workers had firm rules and guidelines to follow to help maintain order and interchangeability. 

Secondly there was the idea of error elimination on page 82. I like the idea that we don't pick things up, rather we fail to not pick them up and by failing to not pick it up actually pick the object up. This was not something I had considered as fully as I had once I read it. Both of these tend to, it seems to me, provide opportunities for organizations that behave like brains to find ways to self-organize or to learn how to learn. 

By having ever-growing diversity of opinion and variety of working and leadership styles, an organization led by self-organization and learning can help to find the best possible route to success. By failing, new procedures and policies can be created that help others not to fail, and by not failing succeed. I regularly cite to my teams how although Steve Jobs has been well known for his successes with Apple, in many ways his success came by way of his failures. "Lisa stands forgotten in the shadow of the Macintosh, but its abject failure (the first model only sold 10,000 units) taught great lessons–especially to Lisa’s original project lead, Steve Jobs, who was kicked off and put on another project: the Macintosh," (Lumb, 2015). It's through failures that we, even as organizations, can figure out what best not to do again.

I think back on my life and the major "Lisa" moment for me was when I wanted to create an app called "PopQuiz Password" (see here). I know, horrible name, but it was a working title. Basically, it was designed for parents to ensure that their kiddos got some learning in while they gamed. It was a project I developed when getting my MBA back in 2004. Before a kiddo could play a computer game they had to complete a grade appropriate quiz. They were rewarded time to play based on how they scored. 100%? 30 minutes of play time. 50%? Then just 5 or 10 minutes of game time. Also we created modules like Texas History, or Boy Scouts and Bible History, to try and make it appealing to parents and more relevant for kids. Additionally we came up with the idea of creating teacher interactions, whereby teachers could upload their own class specific questions and have them load onto the kiddos quizzes.

We started a proof of concept, but then the project died off. There were a multitude of reasons for it dying off, but I've always wondered if that was my Lisa moment. What if I had created PopQuiz Password and it had been a rousing failure like Lisa? What would I have learned? How might I have developed other microlearning opportunities before microlearning took off? 

I am far to safety oriented to have a Lisa moment. Any whiff of failure and I'll look for another option instead of face the failure. Maybe Lisa moments are what entrepreneurs need to be successful ultimately?

References

Lumb, D. (2015, January 22). Remember Apple’s Lisa, the computer that cost Steve Jobs A gig? Kevin Costner does! Fastcompany.Com; Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/3041272/remember-apples-lisa-the-computer-that-cost-steve-jobs-a-gig-kevin-costner-d (Links to an external site.)

Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization (Updated Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Microlearning Apps Follow Up

I got two emails from readers asking about microlearning and what some great microleanring apps are. I wrote a paper on this and ran across some terrific articles that I've listed below. The first two I have posted below give quick overviews, and many of the others are quite worthwhile, but one resource that I really like is the book Make it Stick by Brown, Roediger,  & McDaniel. Make it Stick is a worthwhile read for anyone trying to find ways to make learning more effective and is generally worth re-reading as well. 

One of the best representative examples of this spaced iterative learning that I have run into would be the language learning app "Duolingo." I began taking a Duolingo course to learn Spanish and I was surprised by how Duolingo: 

1) broke down large classes into small bits (micro-learning) 

2) delivered and reminded the user to take the small bits over multiple days and weeks (spaced learning) and 

3) never really "taught" anything, but rather only quizzed the user (iterative learning), similar to flashcards where the user learns through failure.  

I've challenged my eLearning development team to begin trying to present material to our trainees in this style at times. Imagine that instead of telling a trainee the rules and regulations about knife safety then quizzing them on it, which is what we do now, we quiz them over and over until they get it right themselves. It would hopefully yield some variety and challenge the trainees more than the passive style of training they are used to.

Karpicke, J. (2016). A Powerful Way to Improve Learning and Memory; Practicing Retrieval Enhances Long-Term, Meaningful Learning. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory (Links to an external site.)

Karpicke, J. & Roediger, H. (2007). Expanding Retrieval Practice Promotes Short-Term Retention, but Equally Spaced Retrieval Enhances Long-Term Retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2007, Vol 33, No 4, pp. 704-719.

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L. III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Larsen, D. (2014). Picking the Right Does: The Challenges of Applying Spaced Testing to Education. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-14-00170.1 (Links to an external site.)

Logan, J. & Balota, D. (2008). Expanded vs. Equal Interval Spaced Retrieval Practice: Exploring Different Schedules of Spacing and Retention Interval in Younger and Older Adults. Psychology Press. DOI: 10.1080/13825580701322171

Maddox, G. & Balota, D. (2015). Retrieval Practice and Spacing Effects in Young and Older Adults: An Examination of the Benefits of Desirable Difficulty. Mem Cognit. 2015 July; 43 (5): pp. 760-774. DOI: 10.3758/s13421-014-0499-6

MicroLearning Closing Video

 I had to make a microlearning for work. I was thinking of uploading the whole thing here, cause it’s really fun and something I’d love to keep here for future reference, but there are videos of my colleagues and managers and they might not appreciate being a part of my blog. 

So I just posted my little part here. 

Why I Chose to Get my PhD

I wanted to quickly give everyone here an understanding of why I chose to get my PhD in Adult Education. I've been writing a lot about that . . . a lot (here, here and here just to start), so here it is in 800 words or less (799 to be exact).

I chose the Adult Education Degree program as a course of study to pursue my Ph.D. for several reasons. The first reason is that although I've worked in the petrochemical industry for over twenty years, I have never received formal education in training, training delivery, or adult education. Secondly, our organization's leadership wanted to find ways that our organization can differentiate our safety council from competitors. Having a leader of our executive team who has completed a Ph.D. in Adult Education and who is implementing the tools and techniques that are taught in these courses can yield superior training content and deliverables. Finally, I enjoy learning new ways to lead and teach, discovering ways to develop my teams, and persuade my employees to enjoy their jobs and careers.



As a technical writer and proposal writer, I supported contractors in the petrochemical industry. I learned about safety and compliance standards on the job. As an operations analyst and project manager, again I learned in the field. Learning by doing has been a hallmark of my life and career, and up to a point I've had success in that method. When I was promoted to Director of Training I used what I learned in the field and translated it into training content as best I could. I provided and used no specific technique beyond using that field experience.



HASC, where I currently work, is a non-profit training group that occupies a space between contractors and plant owners, but we are not immune to typical business demands. HASC must compete against other training centers or lose our market share. Our goal is to stay abreast of adult learning techniques so that we can be competitive. This degree program will provide us the knowledge as well as tools and techniques to develop the ones we have stumbled into over the years.



As a Training Director for a contractor, our projects had to be quick and nimble. Most projects always had a horizon date of a year and usually an expiration date a year after that. The delivery of the projects was more important than the analysis of results. This degree program, and my new position, has provided me a view of projects with a longer time horizon. My work on CBT engagement, VR microlearning reinforcement, and on analyzing data and results will all benefit from my working on this degree. 



In 2003 I earned an MBA with a focus on technology and eBusiness. This has helped me fine-tune and tweak training delivery systems and make training easier for our learners to consume. Using eLearning tools like virtual classrooms, microlearning, chatbots, and more make delivery easier but doesn't necessarily make training more effective. What I'm learning in this degree program provides a stronger understanding of how to engage adults and can make our training more effective. Learning by doing and slick delivery methods can only take me so far.



Already the courses I have been completed have contributed to my personal goals. There are many tools and techniques that we have used in the past that we have fallen into without any academic understanding. Knowing about Pratt's five perspectives on teaching, understanding that HASC provides most of our training via a Transmission Perspective and that our leadership program uses the Developmental Perspective has already made me a stronger leader and facilitator. HASC developed training the way we have because it seemed right, but no one at HASC would have been able to define why or how it was worthwhile. Already, because of what I've been learning, I have helped HASC become a more potent learning community.



Until I started working toward this Ph.D. I had no further career goals. I enjoy training, teaching and facilitating. The work I'm doing now will make me a stronger trainer, teacher, and facilitator. A multitude of pathways can open up following my earning a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Leadership, pathways that would not have been as easy to access previously.



The work I've completed already has made me and my organization stronger and has made our training more effective. Not only will I benefit from a more solid understanding of adult learning principles, but HASC and the trainee's and contractors HASC supports will find their training more beneficial. Our industry needs extremely effective safety and skills training for oue contractors or catastrophic damage and personal harm could result, especially if it's provided poorly. Understanding how to effectively train our learners through this degree program will have benefits for our industry and my own personal, career goals.

Change Management vs Change Leadership

I enjoy focusing on the contrast between change management and change leadership. This has been an actual challenge for me throughout my life. 

Kotter (2011) emphasizes that change management focuses "refers to a set of basic tools or structures intended to keep any change effort under control" (para. 1). Change leadership however requires something deeper. Again, according to Kotter (2011), change leadership is "concerns the driving forces, visions and processes that fuel large-scale transformation" (para. 1). Both concern, in my opinion, the ability to influence people toward a shared or common vision but there are disticnt difference. I also think there is a time latency aspect where change leadership begins before the project, and before change management. It's making a case for change as well. 

LEAD Community of Practice

Option One: Share one or two Communities of Practice and/or Social Media Fueled Communities of Practice you are a member of or you have plan to become a member of. Briefly describe why you have chosen them. If you are already a member, have you benefited from them? If so how and if not why? What do you think they need to do to further benefit you as a digital leader? 

When I saw the topics outlined in this module I was very excited about reading the articles and responding in this discussion group… I have some experience in setting up online community of practice sites, and I'm always looking for lessons learned and advice. As Gruber et al. (2014) state "social media has accelerated the speed at which information is shared, amplified the reach of messages, and solidified the ability of disparate individuals to organize (p. 164). 

When I was working as a contractor organization, part of my mandate was to improve the leadership training for our field crew supervisors and managers. 

One of the ways we did this was through short microlearning courses that we delivered to our leaders' smartphones. This helped with some of the theoretical underpinnings of leadership development. I knew that we needed more so another thing that we did was create a community of leaders. This came to a head one day when I heard from field leaders about an incident he had been told about. He said he heard about a guy losing a leg in a vacuum truck incident in Kansas. When I looked into it what I found was that the story had been conflated from two separate incidents. I felt that our leaders needed a more direct line of communication and stewardship from our corporate leadership that got rid of the telephone game they were currently relying on. That was the impetus behind creating a leader's community of practice.

This community of practice for leaders was created in Facebook and we invited any and all leaders within the organization to join. I leverage Facebook because I was inspired by my neighborhood's efforts during the Hurricane Harvey floods in Houston. During that time my family and I found out most of the news about our neighborhood from our community Facebook group not from television or radio newscasts. I was impressed by how quickly relevant information was spread in this community page on Facebook and wanted to do the same for our leaders at my organization. 

One of the things I found was that you need a very responsive and dedicated moderator to help move the community along. The community never became self withstanding and I think it has become defunct since I left. I found out the same thing again when trying to start a new community of practice on LinkedIn to support my new organization's leadership training. In this case, we used LinkedIn. Many of our learners take our leadership training in order to progress in their careers. LinkedIn has a focus on careers that isn't found on Twitter or Facebook in quite the same way. As stated in Donelan (2016), "of particular interest is how specific social media tools are being used to enhance networking and contribute to career progression (p. 1). This was the very thing we were interested in finding out too. We were hoping to allow our learners to maintain and grow networks, and Donelan's study (2016) finds evidence that that does happen.

We have been struggling. I knew from previous experience that the community of practice would need more help to get moving. I needed to moderate more aggressively and have more content that would drive the user to the site. We developed many articles and other information before we released the site.  We even created a development team of other facilitators and managers at the organization to help produce content after we released the site. Despite this, the community of practice has not taken off at all. What I have found is that moderation is a full-time affair. Just like with a television broadcast, there needs to be a full-time producer doing nothing but promoting, creating, developing and growing the community of practice. For Facebook it was all me and three hundred different leaders and I couldn't keep things relevant and moving. Now it's about a half dozen content creators, all working part-time, and we can't keep it going. The next interaction will have a dedicated resource. 

Has anyone else had any experiences similar to this? What would you recommend we try?

References

Gruber, D. A., Smerek, R. E., Thomas-Hunt, M. C., & James, E. H. (2015). The real-time power of Twitter: Crisis management and leadership in an age of social media. Business Horizons, 58(2), 163-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.10.006 (Links to an external site.)

Donelan, H. (2016). Social media for professional development and networking opportunities in academia. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 40(5),706–729. 

 

Heutagogcial Metacognition

I never thought it would happen, but today I wrote a script where I used the term heutagogical metacognition. 

What is heutagogical metacognition? Basically it's self-directed learning with reflective practice. I would never ever use the term heutagogical metacognition, but I needed an obscure crazy term for a script. I was writing for Tommy.

I'm a Streaker

I've determined, over the past 50 or so years, that I really enjoy streaks. What's that mean? It means I'm a person of habit. That I enjoy having a system, or a set habit every day. But, sad to say, a long running streak I was keeping up quite well, has fallen at 122 days. 

I was using Duolingo to not only get into interactive learning environments and microlearning but also to try and prep for my eventual . . . and hopeful (HERE) . . . live in Costa Rica . . . Four years away and counting . . . (down). 

Spaced Learning

 I was surprised by a tidbit of information about retention and the short time it takes to move information from working memory to long term memory. At my work as well we created a spaced learning chat bot (see here, here and here) to test our users a week after their initial block learning event. Like you I wonder now if we had to wait a week.

What’s even more confusing, is that having read further this week, into Sousa’s there is an incredibly intriguing chart about spaced learning and practice weeks after the initial event. As the text cites mulitple studies that prove how effective spaced practice is in general and over time for helping with long term memory development and retention.

In those links above, I looked at several articles on space practice and finding the best interval for spaced practice to encourage learning. In that research I was surprised by the "latency" period they proposed as it was always around 24 hours with the longest I believe being 48 hours. Here I was expecting that weeks would be the best answer. Below are the links to those two papers on spaced retrieval practice (see here and here).

What I find incredible is that the idea of spaced practice is not seemingly in doubt as a valid technique for long term memory development, yet whenever I try to pitch the idea of using tools like our chat bot platform or microlearning platform to create this type of learning environment, ie one that has blocked learning followed by spaced practice, none of our members are at all compelled to provide this to their employees. It's frustrating to have the technology and the proof of effectiveness at our hands yet our industry is so locked in on block or massed learning as the delivery method that moving them to a more effective technique is difficult to the point of impossible. I think there needs to be more focus by teachers, facilitators, and trainers about the importance and effectiveness of spaced practice in long term memory to help learners and those who invest in learning, understand the important role in plays in retention. 

One thing that I look forward to trying is using our chat bot to test if learners remember more or less one day after the massed learning or one week after. It should be an interesting experiment if I can fine tune it and make it valid. Regardless, I was as surprised by that facet of spaced learning as you were.

Reference:

Sousa, D.A. (2016). How the brain learns, (5th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Syncrhonous Online Learning

Having provided synchronous online learning courses for years and now having taken several asynchronous courses, I think that asynchronous is more beneficial for the learner. 

I am a avid proponent of microlearning, or chunking large, blocks of learning into smaller courses or modules that make them more palatable for the learner. In the synchronous courses that I led we provided online learning 8 hours a day for 4 days straight. I could tell in many cases that the learner hit a limit on their capability to stay focused every few hours (or less). 

We had to build in activities that would re-engage them and bring them back to the present. We were forced to provide this style of training by the demands of the contracting companies and the compliance mandates of the industry. We were always searching for ways that we could spread out the learning over days, weeks or even months. Most of the asynchronous courses I've been a part of allow the user to work at their own pace, move from the shallow end of the pool, rather than throwing them into the deep end, hoping that that can swim. Asynchronous seems to allow for a slower more managed pace, which lends itself to smaller more manageable intake of information. This is what I think the benefit of asynchronous over synchronous course delivery.

Innovation is in my Genes

I am the Vice President of Innovation at work. A strange title to be sure, but it’s supposed to help me stay inspired to think outside the box. I actually have a tendency to do this. I like to think up new things and invent futures in my mind. Anyone who knows me will have heard me spout off about this. 

First there was RadioBoox, the idea was to have a serial on the radio that people could listen to. Books on tape, but via the radio. I thought it would be like soap operas but for people who drive. Something to look forward to each day. Sadly, it was an idea of the 90’s and the internet, tech boom killed it quickly. 

Acquiring New Skills in this Program

I really enjoyed a discussion with Megan, the colleague I mentioned the other day who is in my Adult Learning and Adult Development class. Although she and I don't have similar paths, it was fun and intriguing to read about her journey and compare it to my own. What I really enjoyed was her final question of "have there been new skills that you have acquired in adulthood that you never thought were possible?" 

The PhD journey that I am on is one of those skills. Well, to be more precise, the skills I'm developing going through these PhD classes are providing me the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge I never thought possible.

In our introductions the other night, I mentioned that I had been a contractor in construction and in refinery services. Other than being the Director of Training, I was also the Director of Career Development. This meant that I led the recruiting team in their efforts to replace our personnel each year. The refining industry goes through up and down cycles. During down cycles, many of the field workers leave their positions and go hunt, fish, take other jobs, or move around to follow other jobs. These are "project workers" who are looking for over-time and double-time rather than a long-term position with one company. We were an organization of 7000, with a 50% turnover rate. This meant we had to re-hire 3500 employees every year, especially to fulfill the needs of the clients for those peak work times. 

If anyone had asked me at that time what my career would include in the future it would have been more of the same. I really enjoyed the career development position. Meeting new employees and showing them the training that we offered as an organization. Getting to go out and train groups of employees and is the first person that they see to introduce them to the company, or hosting an advanced training course on equipment and helping old hands see their equipment in new ways. But by far the best part was getting to go with the recruiters to career fairs and hiring events. Being in interviews and helping convince people to become employees. What a rush!

Now not only do I get to find ways to make that training more substantial and valuable for the employee, but I also get that rush of interacting with field employees from thousands of organizations when I walk the halls of our building and discuss jobs, training, and learning with them. But the best aspect was that I never would have thought I would pursue a PhD. It took moving to a new position, a position with a non-profit training company, and my new boss to say "why don't you go get your PhD?" for me to have any thought or inclination to take classes to refine my understanding of adult learning and take my understanding of learning to the next level. 

In the last three months, I've given four presentations to different conferences and meetings discussing the experiments in VR and microlearning and other innovations we are using to make our learning more sticky. When I was a contractor I never would have thought that I would be in that position.