Ok, I except I may be behind the curve ball on this, in that I have not been supplying, or creating as many digital resources for my customers as I could have done, instead relying on traditional approaches to get key message of learning across to them!
The proverbial penny has finally dropped on this topic. For some of you I suspect you may be rolling your eyes!
Don’t worry I’m smiling at that!
Let me set the scene quickly first. I’m not a ‘digital native’ an old term I know, but people seem to forget that there are individuals out there in world who grew up, without internet, and therefore not fully acknowledging or recognising the potential of Google; You Tube and other social media platforms.
Whilst I might be digitally savvy, digital learning in its broader sense [it isn’t just about using Zoom or Teams to run a learning activity] is not necessarily my default method of learning or training for that matter
Anyway, I recently had a discussion with some peers on the creation of digital resources and I finally made the connection with an activity I been doing for a while, without the realisation that a vast majority of today’s learners would prefer to access the information I provide, digitally.
What I recognised I have been doing, unintentionally, is limiting learning opportunities for a group of individuals who'd prefer to find answers to problems and key pieces of information quickly and succinctly, in a way that only a digital resource could offer.
What made the pennies tumble, was me searching Google, something I have done probably thousands of times if not tens since its creation, for cake recipes.
Want I wanted was information that was quick, easy to follow and understand and could potentially link or take me to more detailed information if it was the recipe I wanted.
Fundamentally, I realised that a high proportion of people would want the same approach to learning leadership & management topics.
So the conversation moved on to discuss the types of digital learning and what the end user needs from them.
When I refer to digital resources I’m talking about, but not limited to : -
Infographics
Blogs
Podcasts
Video or animation
You Tube
Gaming
PowerPoint
Social media such as ‘Tic-Tok’, ‘Instagram’, ’Pinterest’, ‘Twitter’ etc
Communities of Practice – Cops [not robbers]
The conversation got me thinking and I wondered what had influenced me in not utilising digital resources more. Some of it was related to the perception that creating a digital resource is time consuming; complicated and beyond my skillset!
Pah! Total rubbish!
A contributory factor in not pushing for creating digital resources was a lack of motivation, with a pinch of fear on my part. Motivation in the sense of what would the creation of digital resources give me in return for my efforts and fear in the sense of the question ‘would the digital resource be good enough?’
I realised that I didn’t need to get any return for my efforts and that in fact, I owed it to my learners to meet their needs as part of the service I offered!
This was all the motivation I needed and diminished the level of fear I had too, especially as I considered what I would want from a digital resource: -
Ease of use
Clear message & Easily understood
Quick to complete
Available when they want it
Choice or option of wanting to find out more information [hook for more info]
In my contemplations, I also realised how easy it is to adapt one digital resource, say a infographic, into a resource that fits into other types of media such as a Podcast, Blog, Video
So my plan of attack is to start going through all my learning topics and develop a series of digital resources, that appeal to all types of learners and to ensure I adopt this practice going forward.
As a L&D professional, we in the trade, are meant to be developing professionally and I guess this is what I’m doing !