The last year has demonstrated the vast inequity in our society and in our workplaces. Learning and training professionals are uniquely positioned to support all workplace learners on the path to career growth. That goal is combined with the needs of today’s workforce to continue acquiring job competencies throughout their career in order to be successful.
Rolling up the science of learning and instruction into its design for instruction beyond the classroom always was a tricky affair. Before the wide adoption of the internet, most instructional designers were classroom instructors themselves. They benefited from a tight feedback loop of direct daily trial and error of instruction and remediation. These days, those designing learning for workplace advancement or career preparation are often not teaching the content they create. In addition, at times, technology limitations also come into play. Inequitable access to technology and other issues related to technological limitations have been thrown into stark relief due to COVID-19.
Technical limitations hinder learning and development
And sometimes there are technical limitations, thrown into stark relief by COVID-19. For students preparing for the workforce, limited technology access also hampers their preparation for higher education and careers. A Pew Research Center poll revealed that 21 percent of parents of students learning online say it’s at least somewhat likely their children will not complete their schoolwork because of no access to a computer at home. Yet, COVID-19 has accelerated what was already a long-term trend of moving more learning online, partially driven by the need to upskill or even completely reskill in a fast-paced and often technology-driven world.
Adults need just-in-time learning to adapt to changing needs of employers, and most need it in their homes and in their hands, without driving to a school while juggling full-time work and families or learning in the office during a pandemic.
As a learning design and program enablement organization, our team recently witnessed the need for upskilling outside the classroom in an interesting way when designing a professional development course for teachers in South Africa. Like many nations struggling with various equitability issues, this country has its sights set on gender-based violence and decided to tackle it with its education system.
Improving quality education in South Africa
The course owner, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education, partnered with VVOB South Africa, a nonprofit organization that works for the improvement of quality education, to provide continuing professional development for the country’s teachers that would count as requisite annual professional development, while helping these early childhoods (ages three to seven) teachers promote gender equality. The pandemic added a last-minute twist as the professional development, originally planned for face-to-face classroom instruction, was rerouted to online instruction.
The need quickly grew from “how do we help train our country’s teachers to promote gender equality in early childhood” to “how do we do all of that digitally, too? ”The instruction did not require heavy reformulation, evaluation, or synthesis of disparate concepts. Rather, it centered around a sort of recipe book of good classroom practices such as appropriate toys and learning materials, pictures and stories, the environment inside and outside the classroom, and activities.
Learning objectives that always led back to creating change for both teachers and the young learners were identified, and the team came up with a clear and compelling design that worked for the constraints teachers deal with and designed meaningful assessment and reflection to support learning. The skills emphasis started with foundational and background knowledge (vocabulary and core concepts) about gender, and then how and why adjusting these impacts healthy attitudes and behaviors. Further aspects include the use of play materials such as toys, as well as pictures and stories. The instruction also focuses on the use of language, and daily activities such as how to avoid making them sex-specific, e.g. storytime, tidy up, and free play.
Maximizing learning experiences
Similar to learning environments in corporations around the world, strong and genuine relationships with stakeholders were crucial. It was the key that unlocked the door to the flow of expertise and creating an amazing learning experience that enshrines what we know are research-based dimensions of quality that move the needle for learners: learning that is authentic, collaborative, memorable, inclusive, and engaging.
While the training was intended to be online using a learning management system (LMS), this presented another challenge in part because teachers are not always able to go online or have data caps, and our client decided this would need to be addressed. We adjusted the pedagogy to rest on delivery in a platform that could operate offline and wholly independently of an LMS. What is missed in some of the assessment gradings and tracking online is made up for by the Department of Basic Education and VVOB South Africa being able to download it to tablets and phones for teachers to have a complete learning experience offline. A better solution was therefore not the fancier online one, because the solution was not the technology. Technology simply enables pedagogy, which remained effective and engaging.
Like the boardroom, the classroom presents many lessons for navigating unexpected change. This year, and indeed the example above, demonstrates that certain factors – like a pandemic or shifting market needs and trends – are outside of anyone’s control. That’s why whether in an academic or corporate setting, it is essential to focus on what can be controlled – curating relationships of trust with stakeholders, quality learning design rooted in the science of learning, remaining flexible, and getting creative to ensure that learning always is designed for the person on the other side of the screen. Continued learning and growth are vital for professional pathways and the success of companies and society. In these times, it is more important than ever to remain focused on what’s important when we are thrown unexpected curveballs.
