The Harbinger Learning Blog

So where do we begin? Mark McCormack’s quote makes such an apt response to this question – ‘You don’t have to reinvent the wheel just attach it to a new wagon.’

A lot is already out there in the context of nudge which has been successfully practiced. You can simply build upon it. Just pick and choose what suits your situation best. It would be interesting to look at the variety and complexity of problems that are being solved by the nudge theory in application. Let’s look at a couple of examples. International institutions such as the World Bank and UN agencies have been trying to improve the basic standard of living for people across the globe. They have specific business units known as nudge units to deliver results. Another example is that of Richard Branson teaming up with economists to try and nudge Virgin Atlantic’s pilots to use less fuel, using a variety of behavioural interventions.

Possibly, by now, you have started getting a sense that not all of it is new exploration. There is already a starting point from where we could take it ahead. Now, let’s look at some important aspects which would help us in firming up our case for nudge-learning and give us a direction.

1. The ‘Principle of Least Coercion’ can help us in establishing that nudging the learners is an optimal way to match their learning needs. Optimal nudging is all about preserving an individual’s freedom and in this case, it is all about giving our learners the freedom to consume content in a way best for them.
2. The other important aspect is scalability. Nudging could be done at a varying scale, efficiently and without making it a very time consuming and costly affair.
3. Another important aspect to consider is how to motivate learners for self-paced learning. Well, research on human motivation demonstrates that heavy-handed influencing methods can reduce an individual’s intrinsic motivation to behave in desired ways or even lead to oppositional defiance. Nudges are likely to avoid these adverse effects.
4. We can also look upon the Behavioural Insights Team for more information. They had come up with a framework known as EAST (Easy, Accessible, Timely, Social) as a simple way to apply behavioural insights. This framework talks about making the learning accessible, as easy as possible, in a timely manner, and with the flexibility to collaborate socially.

5. And eventually, it is about finding your organization’s sweet spot to implement nudge-learning – an area which can create substantial business impact and has measurable results. Let’s take the case of Virgin Atlantic and see where they found their sweet spot. They used nudges to steer pilots towards conserving fuel, and it produced results. Simply informing pilots that they were participating in a study of fuel usage was enough to save about 3 million pounds and also reduced carbon dioxide emissions significantly. The Virgin case demonstrates that people don’t need a shove to adopt desired behaviours. A nudge can be sufficient to achieve desired results.

We would love to know your thoughts on this topic. We would also be keen to know if you have a sweet spot where you would want to implement nudge-learning. In the next blog in this series, we shall focus on the various factors to be considered while designing an organization’s nudge-learning strategy. In case you would like to have a conversation, please feel free to drop us a line at info@harbingerlearning.com.

How many of us access the Facebook app whenever we get a notification? I am sure almost everyone. This notification alert arouses our curiosity to know more about the update. It is Facebook’s way to encourage our app usage and take us to relevant updates. Now imagine if the mobile app did not have this alert or nudge feature. Would we still access Facebook so frequently? Probably not as many times!

Come to think of it, this is the case with almost all mobile apps. In a busy day when we are multi-tasking, these app alerts try to get our attention and encourage us to use the apps. It is often said, ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ These alerts try and change our behavior on what we give priority to, by being in our sight.

Ironically, even though it is such a useful feature, we are missing it in our organizational learning systems. The learning management systems still follow the traditional approach where they wait for the learner to login to the system and show courses that one has to take and activities to be completed. They don’t nudge learner to take short nuggets of information at regular intervals.

Are you looking for a better and efficient way of learning and reinforcing content in your organizational systems? If yes, then nudge-learning is perhaps the most relevant solution. In this approach, the mobile app pushes content to learner based on learner preferences, checks knowledge retention through regular quizzes, reinforces content at regular intervals, and encourages right learner behavior through badges.

What is important to understand is, it doesn’t take a ground-up new strategy to implement nudge-learning in an organization. One can use existing content and assets to solve their organization’s learning pain points and instill an improved learning culture.

Do you think nudge-learning can help your organization achieve its learning goals? Reach out to us at info@harbingerlearning.com with your thoughts.

The way learning is delivered directly impacts performance and retention. Traditionally, it has been done through classroom-based, Instructor-led training (ILT) sessions which efficiently met relevant learning objectives. However, with rapid advancements in technology, increased geographic reach of organizations, changed learner profiles because of inclusion of millennials in the workforce and tech-savvy learners, there is a huge scope for ILT to be made more effective.  ILT will work best if it is part of a blended learning program that supplements ILT with eLearning, making it a more cost-effective, and hence, justified proposition.

The blended learning approach could follow the below format.

• An introductory eLearning aid can be used to apprise learners of the basic concepts of the topic-in-picture. This would ensure that all learners are on the same page when it comes to the basics of the topic.
• Pre-ILT practice sessions can then be used to gauge learner understanding of the topic so that the instructor could build on it during the actual session.
• When the ILT is delivered, it could be used to build upon the topic knowledge and to clarify any doubts that the learners may have. The classroom time can also be used to discuss relevant case studies on the topic.
• And then an eLearning assessment comes in to test learner understanding and knowledge. eLearning could also be used to nudge training concepts from time to time and act as a good refresher to the classroom sessions.

There are several benefits of the blended learning approach versus when you use only ILT. Let’s talk about some prominent ones.

Aids Self-Paced Learning

A study on “Interactive Multimedia-Based E-Learning: A Study of Effectiveness”[1] stated, “In a traditional classroom setting, learning is instructor-centered and is a sequential process. The instructor controls content and learning pace. Most students do not question or ask for repetition in the class even if they do not understand instructors. In addition, they do not have an opportunity to listen repeatedly to what instructors explained. An interactive multimedia e-learning environment enables learner-centered activities and provides necessary learner–content interaction.” eLearning puts the learners in control of the content, making it easier for everyone to learn at their own pace.

Cost-Effective and Easily Scalable

With increasing geographic scale and reach of organizations, training needs to be delivered to employees at multiple locations. But at the same time, travel budgets are continuously constrained. eLearning can be delivered anytime and at anyplace, thus making it easier to keep travel costs and time in control. It also gives an opportunity to trainers to scale up their training bandwidth and scope in a matter of seconds. Trainers could simply complement eLearning with synchronous online learning sessions or virtual ILT.

Performance Evaluation

ILT is linked with too many missed opportunities to evaluate everything right from training objectives to learner performance and satisfaction. Whereas eLearning ensures that you get to measure and evaluate learner performance and its impact on business, with the help of rich analytics. With learner experience design posed as the next big revolution for learning, performance analytics and evaluation will anyway need to be at the core of enterprise learning.

Supports Reinforcement

Traditional training, once delivered, is easily forgotten, because there is no system in place for regular reinforcement and retention. However, with eLearning, regular refreshers and reinforcement nuggets can be delivered based on learner performance or the likelihood of learner forgetting information after a certain time.

Needless to say, eLearning is not here to replace SMEs and trainers. They will still be the ones driving the whole game. eLearning can give them an opportunity to take their work a level higher, along with probably an added revenue source when their hands are full. Something as simple as a video of them teaching a particular concept in the classroom, coupled with eLearning could do the magic!

Are you a trainer looking to develop blended learning modules?  Reach out to us at info@harbingerlearning.com to discuss your requirements.

 

 

 

[1] (1) Zhang, D. (2005). Interactive Multimedia Based E-Learning: A Study of Effectiveness. The
American Journal of Distance Education (AJDE). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Mahwah,
NJ. 19(3), 149-162.