Recorded videos and written articles are fine – but they can’t compete with instructor-led, hands-on workshops when it comes to engagement, information retention, and the ability to ask specific questions.
By Tim Spring
How does learning work? A guide for employee training
From surveys on students changing the way they were able to attend schools in the pandemic to seeing if handwriting is better than typing for retaining information, there is much research on the best methods to impart and retain knowledge. For employers looking to stay competitive, continuous employee education is essential—but how best to deploy time and resources? We look at several of the most important factors.
The biggest challenge is engagement and interaction. People need to feel engaged with the content to learn effectively, and this is why small games, quizzes, and question segments are often used in presentations or demonstrations: More participation leads to more investment in the topic and more learning.
Another hurdle is that our brains are wired to filter out and forget information that we are not using. Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus shared his research for what he called the forgetting curve in 1880, which is that information not reinforced, used, or connected to some prior knowledge is quickly forgotten. Approximately 56 percent is lost after an hour, 66 percent after a day, and 75 percent after six days.
Learning as an adult
The way we learn also changes as we age. It’s not simply that the focus of life changes from absorbing knowledge at school to needing to work for a living; the way we interact with the information changes as well, and it is important to keep that in mind when looking at educational opportunities for your team. The term Adult Learning Theory was coined in 1968 by Malcolm Knowles and is composed of four key principles:
1. The information needs to be usable now. Adults are busy, and new information that is not relevant to their lives or work in the short term is more likely to be forgotten.
2. Your team wants to be involved in the process of what they learn. It is important to make sure it is on their terms, at a time that works best in their schedule, and uses the most effective delivery method.
3. Reasoning and solving problems is significantly better than memorization. Information that you work for and have some connection to will be easier to remember and use rather than one fact among many you’ve simply been told.
4. Adults likely already have experience – let them draw on that when learning. Associations are a great way to become accustomed to new information, saying one tool works well or is similar to something they already know about will create correlations that will stick in their brains easier than brand new tools they have no context for.
Individual research vs group training sessions
New information learned that helps your team achieve success is beneficial, but how that information is obtained can impact the organization more than you might think. Individual research and group training sessions both have pros and cons to consider when looking at the best way to bring your team up to speed.
Individual research is personally driven and relies on the motivation and skills of the employee conducting it. This can be good if the person has time and interest to dedicate to learning more about the subject or less than ideal if the person already has a full plate of projects and deadlines coming up. While this type of learning can be personally rewarding, usually free or inexpensive, and beneficial to both the individual and organization, it also is generally tied to that individual, making them the de facto “expert” in the area, and should they leave or be unavailable that knowledge is essentially lost.
Group training sessions tend to be led by an instructor that is an expert in the field they are presenting on, leading to tailored information and, most importantly, the ability to ask specific questions that your team cares about. An instructor is more costly, but your team is more likely to retain the knowledge imparted by the instructor’s expertise, as it will be calibrated to be relevant, and imparted in a group, thereby turning each team member into a resource for the others should one forget some of the details.
Indicio’s Workshops focus on providing the best education for your team
Indicio knows you have options when it comes to training your team, which is why every workshop we offer is customizable, focused on customer success, and allocates the time to focus on topics your team deems important. Every instructor we have is a professional in the field that works with this technology daily, so it is likely that any problem or question you might have will have been encountered before.
Interaction and engagement is the cornerstone of any training Indicio offers: We are not here to just present information and hope it sticks. The goal is to put the technology in your hands, have you play with it, find some new questions about it in the session, and leave you with not only a better understanding, but some ideas you’re excited about getting to try.
While every workshop is customized to the needs of the individual team we do have a few that we see helping many people just starting out.
Comprehensive Introduction to Decentralized Identity Workshop – Designed to give your business or organization an in-depth, understanding of how decentralized identity works. You’ll create, issue, and verify a credential. Then we’ll show you how to design a proof of concept.
Business Use Case and Ecosystem Design workshop – This is ideal for those that have decided to implement verifiable credentials and want to get into the weeds of value proposition, use cases, and potential target customer demographics.
Executive Education SSI Workshop – Written with a business audience in mind, this training focuses on understanding how SSI (decentralized identity) works, the pain points it solves for, the risks it mitigates, the use cases currently in deployment, and the opportunities that are created by being able to build Trusted Data Ecosystems (TDEs).
If you would like to discuss a strategy for how to best educate your team around decentralized identity contact us today to get started!
