During my time as a math teacher, I used Khan Academy often in my classroom because it allowed for self-paced, hands-on-learning. Because its platform gives everyone the chance to learn at their own pace, one of my eighth grade students was comfortably working on college level calculus. So when I made the transition from a math teacher to my current role with Content Raven, I shifted my focus from K-12 learning to corporate learning, but I knew that many lessons learned from my teaching experience would be easily transferable to learning and development.
With Khan Academy coming up on its ten year anniversary, I wanted to revisit which aspects of its approach are most relevant to corporate learners today.
Video is still the most effective method of learning: According to research, our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than they do text, with one minute of video equating to about 1.8 million words! However, It’s not enough to simply use any video learning strategy. In Sal Khan’s book, “The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined,” he writes about how he intentionally leaves himself out of all instructional videos. This way, viewers can focus on the content and eliminate distractions introduced by a person on camera.
The flipped classroom: exploration and self-paced learning: The flipped classroom takes the concept of lecture hall and homework and turns it on its head. In a flipped classroom, students watch videos at home, on their own time, and at their own pace. Students can pause, rewind, and replay sections for better clarity, and are free to explore related content for an additional challenge. Although there will never be a complete substitute for in-person, hands-on learning by individuals and groups, self-paced e-learning helps facilitate a more productive classroom.
Meanwhile in corporate America, employees report high-levels of frustration when they need to leave their office to participate in classroom-based training. Only 15 percent of the information learned in these settings is retained, and presentation-heavy lectures provide little opportunity to practice what is learned. The flipped classroom solves these issues. Today’s corporate learners have access to the Internet and mobile devices for high-quality viewing at all times. So, instead of making students step out of their work environment to attend in-classroom training, L&D leaders can provide short, educational videos to watch, coupled with the time to come together to practice what employees learned in a real environment.
Personalized instruction and adaptive learning: Whether in the classroom or the office, everyone has unique needs and learns differently. With adaptive learning, practice questions get easier or harder based on the student’s success in mastering the session preceding it. The same approach can be applied to sales training and customer success programs. For example, one sales rep may have significant expertise selling to the financial services industry, but perhaps needs help positioning to health care. Adaptive learning technologies would help curb that challenge and guide the sales rep to materials that support greater competency in health care.
Gamification: To maintain engagement and interest in learning, students can earn “video game-like badges,” avatars, and energy points as they watch videos and answer questions. This turns learning into a game, and a self-motivating competition. Learning and development professionals can apply badges and point systems in a similar manner, encouraging employees to celebrate when everyone on the team achieves a badge, or rewarding employees that reach milestones with gift cards or vacation time.
Reporting and Analytics: As a teacher, one of the things I found most valuable was receiving instant feedback about student progress via an analytics dashboard. I knew immediately when a student got stuck and more importantly, exactly where they got stuck. I used this information to tailor classroom time to further examine those sections and increase clarity. Learning and development professionals can use programs like Tin Can, which integrates with learning management systems, to pinpoint how students respond to materials and instruction. Trainers can then revise content for clarity, or provide additional resources to individual students.
Despite being removed from academia, it is evident that there is much we can still learn from school!
