How do you REALLY get to know your online learners?

Ok, yes, that title was supposed to be clickbait too... But clickbait uses the principle of the unexpected and the unexpected grabs attention. In a lesson that can be exactly what you need to impact a learner. Today I talk about how to make learning a little more unexpected.

It doesn't matter how great the instruction is if the learner doesn't feel safe and connected to what they are being taught. In today's podcast I talk about the important skill of building a learning culture.

It's that time of year, the time to evaluate the direction of our careers. Today I talk about what we, as learning designers, are doing that is not working and then letting that go. Continuing to do what is working and finding what we are not doing yet that we need to start doing.

I get asked what I do all the time, and until recently I would just give my job title. The problem with just giving the job title is that it doesn't explain anything, and people end up more confused. Today I talk about how I tell people what I do in a much better way and how it has re-invigorated my career.

In today's podcast, I take a step into the brain science of why it's important to engage our students in more than just the curriculum. People are complex creatures, and the brain requires stimulation in complex ways. If we just focus on delivering the basic information we are missing out on big opportunities to create lasting impact through engaging the brain's rewards systems.

In today's podcast I talk about teaching the learner who doesn't want to learn: teaching the unteachable. Sometimes students are forced to be in class, or they need to learn something they just don't want to learn. How do we as learning designers get past the learner's lack of desire or their contempt for the curriculum and still make an impact in their lives?

While a lot of aspect of quarantine was NOT fun I feel like it did help online learning take a couple of leaps forward. In today's podcast, I talk about what I learned with doing a blended classroom and what we can continue to do to help our students learn most effectively.

Sometimes in our efforts to be amazing Learning Designers we take on too much and overwhelm our capacity to the point that we are no longer effective. In today's podcast, I talk about how to help you as a designer not get too overwhelmed so that you can use your full cognitive capacity for the learner!

My Learning and Development department was in a bad place for a little while because none of our clients wanted to work with us. This was due to a lack of trust and a prevailing smug attitude. When we decided to find a better workflow that would align with our clients everything changed for us.

Too often we are asked to make a solution to a problem that has not been fully assessed. This leads to abandoned projects, low morale, and underserved learners. Today I talk about avoiding this with the steps of a proper needs assessment.