We all know the school classroom drill. Children learn about a subject and the theory in the classroom, then are sent home with some homework to apply the learning. Workplace classroom training has followed pretty much the same format. Here’s the theory, now go away and put it into practice.
That has been the accepted way of doing things for years, but it has started to change. Current thinking is that it is more useful to do the theory part out of the classroom and apply the learning in the classroom. That shift is happening in leadership training and will potentially happen in schools too.
The reasoning is that when people are applying learning, that’s when they need the most help. Plus, time is so short and precious these days that if leaders are going to dedicate some of their time to learning with others, that time needs to have maximum impact. If people come to those learning sessions prepared and with a base level of knowledge and understanding – the theory – then group discussion time will be much more in depth, meaningful and practical.
Let’s give an example of where Noddlepod has facilitated this kind of deeper learning. One of our customers had a class of 30 leaders booked onto a course. A week before the course date, she asked them to use Noddlepod to share a challenge they were facing, something that they could address together in the classroom. Almost half (12) of them shared a challenge. What happened next was totally unexpected - by the time the course actually took place, they had already discussed those 12 challenges, using Noddlepod. Not only that, they had shared resources and resolved them. So on the actual course they summarised some of the lessons learned, with the result that the classroom learning was a lot more practical. It was related to real challenges and tied in to what the leaders were doing in the workplace.
Using technology in this way shifts the focus from delivering training to facilitating it. Course leaders have to be prepared to let go of some control and accept they are not the font of all knowledge. It’s about connecting people in a meaningful way, rather than delivering the perfect speech.
The question is: ‘How do you flip the corporate classroom?’ We have created five top tips on how to do it:
- Create the resources up front. Those resources can be video based content, simulation exercises, articles to read… whatever is most appropriate and engaging. Or, as with the example above, it could be shared challenges to discuss.
- Share those resources in advance of the session with enough time for everybody to access them and absorb them.
- Share them via a social, collaborative platform, such as Noddlepod, so that discussions get going ahead of the scheduled learning time and everyone can see what others are finding useful.
- Encourage learners to come to sessions with questions, problems and observations, based on the learning you have already shared with them. Also to think about their current workplace challenges and how that relates to the learning. You want learners to come prepared and ready to put their learning into action.
- Think about how ‘class time’ can be best designed and used to apply knowledge in the most meaningful way. If the theory is already done, how can you now consolidate and build on that?