“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Learning Transfer’s ultimate outcome is behaviour change, so we must understand the conditions that trigger a behaviour to start.
…
According to Fogg, three specific elements must converge at the same moment for a specific behaviour to occur. Given that learning transfer is only successful when the learner starts behaving in the desired new ways, Fogg’s work is critical to understanding how to generate these new behaviours. The Fogg Behavioural Model [*1] states that B=MAP. That is, a specific behaviour will occur if at the same moment there is sufficient motivation, sufficient ability and sufficient prompt. If the behaviour does not occur, at least one of these three elements is missing or below the threshold required.
The prompt is, in effect, a call to action to do a specific behaviour. The prompt must be ‘loud’ enough for the target person to perceive it and be consciously aware of it. Once aware of a prompt, the target immediately, and largely unconsciously, assesses their ability to carry out the requested behaviour: how difficult would this be, how long will it take, who can help me, and so on. They base this on their perception of the difficulty of the requested behaviour, and their ability, as they see it, to achieve that behaviour.
Outside of practicing their learning, there are many challenges to creating and delivering meaningful workplace L&D programs. Participants are busy and may struggle to free up even an hour or two on their calendars. Training could be delivered in the wrong format or at the wrong time. After they attend the training, they may not have an opportunity to apply what they have learned. This can lead to some participants not perceiving training as time well spent. As L&D professionals, our job is to create learning experiences that are meaningful and relevant to people’s day-to-day work.
Adults learn best when training is delivered when it is most relevant to their work, and they can apply what they have learned right away. They must be able to connect what they are learning with the work they are doing and the overarching goals and strategies of the organization.
One possible solution is to implement a microlearning strategy into workplace learning programs. In this article, I will discuss reasons why microlearning can be an effective tool in the L&D toolkit, things to think about when creating a microlearning strategy, cost-effective technology solutions to leverage and ideas to help your microlearning strategy feel exciting and engaging for your participants.
Consider Coursera Inc., the most prominent survivor of that early edtech hype. It’s now a public company, with a hefty $2.3 billion valuation. Finally, 12 years after it was founded — by, incidentally, another Google veteran in Andrew Ng — it’s set to report its first profit this year, according to analyst estimates. And the enterprise business is considerably more profitable, enjoying a 68% gross margin in 2023, compared to the consumer business’s 53% margin.
…
Figuring out the right match between training and utility is how several business schools seem to have developed successful online courses — which they are charging top dollar for. They’re in close contact with the sort of large corporations who hire their graduates, giving them a more intimate understanding of what those businesses seek.
Harvard Business School is one example. It made $74 million from online courses in fiscal 2022, the most recent year for whichdata is available.
Some people think that people with Down syndrome can’t live ‘normal’ lives. That’s wrong! And what is ‘normal’ anyway?
My life is similar to lots of my family and friends. I went to my local school, I’m involved in a local orchestra and the scouts. I am training to be a teaching assistant.
All of this for me is ‘normal’, just like everyone else. .
The AI era is here, and leaders across learning and talent development have a new mandate: help people and organizations rise to opportunity with speed and impact.
As AI reshapes how people learn, work, and chart their careers, L&D sits at the center of organizational agility, delivering business innovation and critical skills. This report combines survey results, LinkedIn behavioral data, and wisdom from L&D pros around the globe to help you rewrite your playbook for the future of work.
Accenture announced today that it would acquire the learning platform Udacity as part of an effort to build a learning platform focused on the growing interest in AI. While the company didn’t specify how much it paid for Udacity, it also announced a $1 billion investment in building a technology learning platform it’s calling LearnVantage.
“The rise of generative AI represents one of the most transformative changes in how work gets done and is driving a growing need for enterprises to train and upskill people in cloud, data and AI as they build their digital core and reinvent their enterprises,” Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage said in a statement.
From DSC: This would be huge for all of our learning ecosystems, as the learning agents could remember where a particular student or employee is at in terms of their learning curve for a particular topic.
As college costs soar and demand for skilled labor rises, programs that prepare students for well-paid work are gaining popularity. About 85 percent of high school graduates in 2019 had taken at least one course in career and technical education, or CTE. In 2018, Congress increased annual funding for CTE, which now exceeds $1.4 billion. And in 2022, 36 states enacted policies promoting career training for high schoolers, college students, and adults, according to Advance CTE, a professional organization for state CTE leaders.
Yet many states struggle to answer a basic question: Is career education working?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — While three-quarters of higher-education trustees (83%), faculty (81%) and administrators (76%) agree that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) will noticeably change their institutions in the next five years, community college trustees are more optimistic than their community college counterparts, with (37%) saying their organization is prepared for the change coming compared to just 16% of faculty and 11% of administrator respondents.
Those findings are from the 2023-2024 Digital Learning Pulse Survey conducted by Cengage and Bay View Analytics with support from the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), College Pulse and the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) to understand the attitudes and concerns of higher education instructors and leadership.
From DSC: It takes time to understand what a given technology brings to the table…let alone a slew of emerging technologies under the artificial intelligence (AI) umbrella. It’s hard enough when the technology is fairly well established and not changing all the time. But its extremely difficult when significant change occurs almost daily.
The limited staff within the teaching & learning centers out there need time to research and learn about the relevant technologies and how to apply those techs to instructional design. The already stretched thin faculty members need time to learn about those techs as well — and if and how they want to apply them. It takes time and research and effort.
Provosts, deans, presidents, and such need time to learn things as well.
Bottom line: We need to have realistic expectations here.
AI Adoption in Corporate L&D — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman Where we are, and the importance of use cases in enabling change
The headline of the report is that we’ve never seen a technology adopted in enterprise as fast as generative AI. As of November 2023, two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents reported that their companies are using generative AI.
However, the vast majority of AI adopters in enterprise are still in the early stages; they’re experimenting at the edges, rather than making larger-scale, strategic decisions on how to leverage AI to accelerate our progress towards org goals and visions.
The single biggest hurdle to AI adoption in large corporates is a lack of appropriate use cases.
The future of corporate learning and development (L&D) is being profoundly reshaped by the progress we are witnessing in artificial intelligence (AI). The increasing availability of new technologies and tools is causing L&D leaders and their teams to rethink their strategy and processes, and even their team structure. The resulting shift, already gaining momentum, will soon move us toward a future where learning experiences are deeply personal, interactive, and contextually rich.
The technological advancements at the forefront of this revolution:
Allow us to create high-quality content faster and at a fraction of the cost previously experienced.
Provide us with a range of new modalities of delivery, such as chat interfaces, as well as immersive and experiential simulations and games.
Enable us to transform learning and training more and more into a journey uniquely tailored to each individual’s learning path, strengths, weaknesses, and confidence levels.
We are already seeing signs of the immediate future—one where AI will adapt not only content but the entire learner experience, on-the-fly and aligned with the needs and requirements of the learner at a specific moment of need.
AI-assisted design & development work: A dramatic shift This prediction was right. There has been a seismic shift in instructional design, and the role is evolving toward content curation, editing, and resource orchestration. Critical thinking skills are becoming more important than ever to make sure that the final learning asset is accurate. All of this is happening thanks to AI tools like:
Adobe Firefly…
ChatGPT…
Another tool, one that isn’t usually part of the L&D ecosystem, is Microsoft’s Azure AI Services…
Early estimates indicate these improvements save between 30 percent and 60 percent of development time.
As a reminder, meta-learning, in this context, refers to tools that serve up experiences to learners based on their preferences, needs, and goals. It is the superstructure behind the content assets (e.g., programs, courses, articles, videos, etc.) that assembles everything into a coherent, and purposeful, body of knowledge for the users.
OAKBROOK, Ill. , Jan. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Companies partnering externally to provide training or professional development to employees increased by 26 percent (nearly 15 percentage points) between 2022 and 2023, according to a new study released today by Collegis Education and UPCEA, the online and professional education association. In addition, the report, “Unveiling the Employer’s View: An Employer-Centric Approach to Higher Education Partnerships,” revealed that more than 61 percent of companies without external training partnerships are interested in developing them.
In the second year of an ongoing research series, Collegis partnered with UPCEA to survey more than 500 employers to better understand their perceptions of collaborating with higher ed on professional development programs and alternative credentials.
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) (NYSE: INST), the leading learning ecosystem and maker of Canvas, announced today it has completed the acquisition of Parchment, the world’s largest credential management platform and network. Parchment has over 13,000 customers and has exchanged more than 165 million credentials over two decades. This acquisition is expected to significantly expand Instructure’s existing customer base and unlock exciting new growth opportunities.
“The addition of Parchment to the Instructure ecosystem enables our customers to offer flexible lifelong learning experiences to meet the needs of the ever-growing sector of non-traditional learners,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “By providing a verifiable and comprehensive digital passport of achievement records and outcomes for learners, we’ll be able to help our customers navigate skill mastery, transfer credits, provide proof of prior learning, and much more.”
From DSC: Instructure’s purchase here represents an important piece of our future learning ecosystems— a way to document/prove the learning a person has done throughout their ***lifelong learning*** journey.
The Importance of Credit for Prior Learning — from evolllution.com by Alexa Dunne Higher ed needs to focus on providing credit for prior learning that properly communicates what learners know to provide them with more opportunities in the workforce.
According to research from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)**, students complete their credentials at a substantially higher rate when they are awarded 15 or more credits for prior learning. For institutions, awarding CPL is an easy—and equitable—way of helping students succeed. Do we want a 22-point increase in credential completion? Yes, please!
Addendum on 2/9/24:
Lego my Metaphor — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan The problem with how we think about stackability of microcredentials=
A key aspect of microcredentials promise is that they are small and have fewer barriers to entry in terms of time and cost than for degrees. But given that microcredentials are small, they can only take a learner so far. This is where stackability comes in. By stacking these microcredentials (i.e., adding multiple credentials, each building on the other) they can be combined to make a more meaningful overall set of qualifications or to create an entryway into a new career. Microcredential stackability is a key assumption underlying many higher education institutions microcredential efforts, as well as a central thread in how they are speaking about and marketing the microcredentials.
In the coming months I want to explore more about microcredentials, as I think they are going to be a key part of higher education in the future. Right now, in higher education I see a lot of talk about microcredentials but less execution and less success than most people would like. Microcredentials are difficult to get right, but we need to start by talking about them in the right way.
OpenAI on Thursday announced its first partnership with a higher education institution.
Starting in February, Arizona State University will have full access to ChatGPT Enterprise and plans to use it for coursework, tutoring, research and more.
The partnership has been in the works for at least six months.
ASU plans to build a personalized AI tutor for students, allow students to create AI avatars for study help and broaden the university’s prompt engineering course.
The collaboration between ASU and OpenAI brings the advanced capabilities of ChatGPT Enterprise into higher education, setting a new precedent for how universities enhance learning, creativity and student outcomes.
“ASU recognizes that augmented and artificial intelligence systems are here to stay, and we are optimistic about their ability to become incredible tools that help students to learn, learn more quickly and understand subjects more thoroughly,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said. “Our collaboration with OpenAI reflects our philosophy and our commitment to participating directly to the responsible evolution of AI learning technologies.”
AI <> Academia — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman What might emerge from ASU’s pioneering partnership with OpenAI?
Phil’s Wish List #2: Smart Curriculum Development ChatGPT assists in creating and updating course curricula, based on both student data and emerging domain and pedagogical research on the topic.
Output: using AI it will be possible to review course content and make data-informed automate recommendations based on latest pedagogical and domain-specific research
Potential Impact: increased dynamism and relevance in course content and reduced administrative lift for academics.
Unlike traditional leadership, adaptable leadership is not bound by rigid rules and protocols. Instead, it thrives on flexibility. Adaptable leaders are willing to experiment, make course corrections, and pivot when necessary. Adaptable leadership is about flexibility, resilience and a willingness to embrace change. It embodies several key principles that redefine the role of leaders in organizations:
Embracing uncertainty
Adaptable leaders understand that uncertainty is the new norm. They do not shy away from ambiguity but instead, see it as an opportunity for growth and innovation. They encourage a culture of experimentation and learning from failure.
Empowering teams
Instead of dictating every move, adaptable leaders empower their teams to take ownership of their work. They foster an environment of trust and collaboration, enabling individuals to contribute their unique perspectives and skills.
Continuous learning
Adaptable leaders are lifelong learners. They are constantly seeking new knowledge, stay informed about industry trends and encourage their teams to do the same. They understand that knowledge is a dynamic asset that must be constantly updated.
Major AI in Education Related Developments this week — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard ASU integrates with ChatGPT, K-12 AI integrations, Agents & the Rabbit, Uruguay, Meta and AGI, Rethinking curriculum
“The greatest risk is leaving school curriculum unchanged when the entire world is changing.” Hadi Partovi, founder Code.org, Angel investor in Facebook, DropBox, AirBnb, Uber
Tutorbots in college. On a more limited scale, Georgia State University, Morgan State University, and the University of Central Florida are piloting a project using chatbots to support students in foundational math and English courses.
Pioneering AI-Driven Instructional Design in Small College Settings — from campustechnology.com by Gopu Kiron For institutions that lack the budget or staff expertise to utilize instructional design principles in online course development, generative AI may offer a way forward.
Unfortunately, smaller colleges — arguably the institutions whose students are likely to benefit the most from ID enhancements — frequently find themselves excluded from authentically engaging in the ID arena due to tight budgets, limited faculty online course design expertise, and the lack of ID-specific staff roles. Despite this, recent developments in generative AI may offer these institutions a low-cost, tactical avenue to compete with more established players.
There’s a new AI from Google DeepMind called AlphaGeometry that totally nails solving super hard geometry problems. We’re talking problems so tough only math geniuses who compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad can figure them out.
Discover a learner-centric curriculum at Embark Education, where learners recently co-designed a transformative project centered around family narratives and recipes.
Explore the intersection of culinary traditions, empathy, and critical analysis as learners delve into the complexities of cultural revitalization, shifting demographics, and systemic inequities in their communities.
Engage with a hands-on approach to competency-based education, culminating in the creation of a culturally rich product in collaboration with local community partners, fostering a deep sense of pride and ownership among learners and their respective communities, alike.
From DSC: I especially like the learner-centered approach, along with the collaboration with local community partners here. As described in Getting Smart’s Smart Update:
Microschool Spotlight: Embark Education
Getting Smart admires Embark Education’s innovative approach for reimagining the middle school experience, recognizing the pivotal nature of adolescence. With a commitment to providing personalized and relevant learning experiences, Embark supports learners in courageously exploring, engaging, and discovering their sense of self, contributing to the broader mission of revolutionizing education.
“We are anchored in the unwavering belief that by simply trusting learners, both youth and adults, we create the conditions for them to curiously and confidently unlock their potential – and that their potential is limitless.” – Brian Hyosaka, Head of School
1. Your own AI-powered coaching Learners can go into LinkedIn Learning and ask a question or explain a challenge they are currently facing at work (we’re focusing on areas within Leadership and Management to start). AI-powered coaching will pull from the collective knowledge of our expansive LinkedIn Learning library and, instantaneously, offer advice, examples, or feedback that is personalized to the learner’s skills, job, and career goals.
What makes us so excited about this launch is we can now take everything we as LinkedIn know about people’s careers and how they navigate them and help accelerate them with AI.
…
3. Learn exactly what you need to know for your next job
When looking for a new job, it’s often the time we think about refreshing our LinkedIn profiles. It’s also a time we can refresh our skills. And with skill sets for jobs having changed by 25% since 2015 – with the number expected to increase by 65% by 2030– keeping our skills a step ahead is one of the most important things we can do to stand out.
There are a couple of ways we’re making it easier to learn exactly what you need to know for your next job:
When you set a job alert, in addition to being notified about open jobs, we’ll recommend learning courses and Professional Certificate offerings to help you build the skills needed for that role.
When you view a job, we recommend specific courses to help you build the required skills. If you have LinkedIn Learning access through your company or as part of a Premium subscription, you can follow the skills for the job, that way we can let you know when we launch new courses for those skills and recommend you content on LinkedIn that better aligns to your career goals.
2024 Edtech Predictions from Edtech Insiders — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell, and Sarah Morin Omni-modal AI, edtech funding prospects, higher ed wake up calls, focus on career training, and more!
Alex: I talked to the 360 Learning folks at one point and they had this really interesting epiphany, which is basically that it’s been almost impossible for every individual company in the past to create a hierarchy of skills and a hierarchy of positions and actually organize what it looks like for people to move around and upskill within the company and get to new paths.
Until now. AI actually can do this very well. It can take not only job description data, but it can take actual performance data. It can actually look at what people do on a daily basis and back fit that to training, create automatic training based on it.
From DSC: I appreciated how they addressed K-12, higher ed, and the workforce all in one posting. Nice work. We don’t need siloes. We need more overall design thinking re: our learning ecosystems — as well as more collaborations. We need more on-ramps and pathways in a person’s learning/career journey.
