Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021 - 25

Tomorrow's Learning Experience
100% DIGITAL AND 100% HUMAN

BY FRANÇOIS DEBOIS

Beware of the illusion of mastery. Have
you ever watched a tutorial on how to
paint a room like a professional? It looks
easy on screen, and you're certain that
you can achieve the same result once
you start dipping your brush. However,
that's the paradox of asynchronous
digital solutions: The more carefully they
are designed, the more they can induce
the illusion of mastery.
How can you overcome this illusion?
Start painting for real, and ask your
neighbor to give you feedback.
Confronting with practice enables us to
realize that developing new skills is not
that easy, and confronting with others
provides support and enables us to
enhance our skills.
At a time when the adoption of selfpaced and distance learning is making
a historic breakthrough, learning and
development
(L&D)
professionals
must ask themselves, " How can these
confrontations be set up in a learningfrom-home world? "

SHARE WITH THE GROUP
Let's say you want to train your managers
on remote management, so you begin
to plan a virtual classroom experience

for your organization's entire leadership
team. It's important to remember that
human interaction is essential, but
permanent contact with the group is not.

LEARNING
PROFESSIONALS
SHOULD SAVE HUMAN
INTERACTION FOR
ACTIVITIES THAT
ARE WORTHWHILE.

Virtual interactions require more
concentration because they occur at a
distance, making it impossible to rely
on interpreting facilitators' and other
participants' body language. Therefore,
learners must work at full capacity
to compensate. On the other hand -
although heightened attention in virtual
interactions can result in learner fatigue
- the benefits of virtual interactions
outweigh the shortcomings in courses
such as soft skills training, where

practicing and simulating conflict plays a
key role. However, this is not necessary
when dealing with " simple " learning.
Therefore, learning professionals should
save human interaction for activities that
are worthwhile, such as role-play and
discussions that allow learners to reflect
or offer feedback on a technical exercise.
Above all, it is necessary to combine
selected group interactions with
individual interactions.

A CASE STUDY
Let's look at a learning journey that
was designed two years ago, with no
requirements but to maximize return on
investment (ROI). See Figure 1 on page
26. It is based on an innovative model,
combining the power of digital and
the richness of human interactions to
deliver a flexible and engaging learning
experience.
This six-week course was based on the
principle of " learning sprints, " with each
sprint focusing on a professional situation
and integrating digital resources, such
as eLearning courses, interactive videos,
job aids and microlearning content.

T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MAGAZ INE - VIRTUAL LEARNING I W WW. T RAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

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Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021

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