Imagine: tailored learning

A few thoughts on adult learning.

So often I find myself in front of a class thinking “what am I doing here? Am I simply repeating the tired old formula: class vs. teacher… I talk vs. you listen…. I teach vs. you learn”. The honest truth is, that no matter how much I strive to “make the class interactive”, or do the “let’s make this a dialogue” thing… I still feel that there must be better a better way to go about it. Adult learning (… learning in general?) should move beyond this.

Imagine learning based on individual needs. Imagine a flexible classroom coupled with online lessons, and one-on-one sessions. Imagine someone sending you articles to read based on your own specific needs. Imagine learning by trying one best practice at a time in your real work environments rather than receiving a load of notions in a few days and end the class wondering if you will ever have the time to even try them.

Would companies pay for this kind of coaching? The few times I have mentioned these thoughts to existing customers, the answer is inevitably: “wow… that would be awesome… but… how would we get charged for it? How would we track the actual progress of the participants (as if tracking the “being in class” of an employee was really tracking the guy’s progress… hint, hint…)?”

Which of course introduces the next topic: how can you measure the real value of training?

Do you have thoughts on this? Share them, let me know!

Cheers!

Max