🤯 Bias:

POV: There is a learning need in my company. Solution: Let’s create an e-learning course with all the information people need. 

❌ Problem:

This approach is like a shot in the dark. Creating slide-based, information-packed courses to address specific learning needs often leads to unsatisfactory learning experiences with little retention of information. 

🆕 Alternative:

Learning shouldn’t be something separated from actual daily work. They should mingle. So, same POV, different solution: don’t let your mind jump directly to the standard course solution, and try to imagine how learning new skills can spice up your team’s daily work routine.

🦾 Pro tip:

Before embarking on designing a course, ask yourself, “What practical activities will help people apply what they need to know, not just tell them what they already know?” (thanks to Kathy Moore, author of Map It, for shedding light on this matter).

🤯Bias:

When someone says they’re taking an online course, you immediately picture them holed up in their room, just them and their computer, scrolling through videos and materials all on their own.

❌ Problem:

Learners embracing this view can result in a lack of motivation, leading to never finishing a course, as evidenced by MOOC stats.

🆕 Alternative:

The “bootcamp or cohort model,” which emphasizes social learning, can be a solution to boost engagement and increase completion rates. For example, Harvard Business School saw an 85% improvement in its online course completion rate by incorporating live interaction amongst peers.

🦾Pro tip:

How can we leverage the benefits of peer pressure? By helping learners meet their goals via sharing a common timetable, for example. Ps: make sure to rely on features such as a Calendar and Activity Planner to keep learners on track and motivated.

🤯Bias:

The notion that a single instructor should handle all aspects of a course: from designing the content, to teaching, testing, and managing all the operational facets of being an instructor. In a nutshell, if I say “teaching”, you don’t think of it as a team effort, do you? 

❌ Problem:

The entire course is taught by one instructor. However, how can a single educator have the capacity to manage all the tasks mentioned above, from content creation to grading?

🆕Alternative:

A team of professionals with diverse skill sets, from graphic to instructional designers, should be responsible for constructing the course and managing it, from ideation to the teaching workload.

🦾Pro tip:

Don’t rely solely on one expert. Instead, try combining a subject matter expert with other professionals bringing creative, instructional, and operational benefits. For example, why not create educational content that leverages the popularity of Tik Tok?

🤯Bias:

The notion that we can impart information by simply cramming large amounts of it into a lesson-to-test framework (that is, starting with the information we want to convey, creating content around it, and then testing students on it).

❌ Problem:

Information overload to the nth degree. This model leads to dissatisfaction and poor retention of what you learn, as only 12% of adult learners tend to apply new information in their daily work.

🆕Alternative:

Consider different methods for sharing knowledge and question the most effective strategy to fill the information gap.

🦾Pro tip:

Investigate innovative teaching strategies to figure out how to tweak this model and make the most of active forms of learning like Flipped Teaching, Teach to Learn, Challenge and Project-based Learning.

🤯Bias:

The assumption that technology is exclusively for distance learning and that in-person learning can’t involve technology. 

❌ Problem:

Isn’t it kind of strange that none of the workplace courses out there include the active use of technology? At the same time, this bias also strengthens the (wrong) idea that technology makes learning a solitary experience. Indeed, the belief that technology = remote learning and no technology = in-person learning is flawed for two reasons: 1) technology can enhance in-person activities; 2) online learning is most effective when it’s based on collaboration.

🆕Alternative:

Embed technology in both in-person and remote activities, such as project works, brainstorming sessions, gamified approaches, and ice-breaking moments. 

🦾Pro tip:

Creating a blended environment doesn’t mean everyone working on their own piece of technology. For in-person activities, try to design learning experiences where people can use these tools to collaborate: from shared documents to writing down business cases to group and project work. There are plenty of use cases to ignite collaboration through in-person technology.

Quick test: What if we eliminate all biases and bring together all the alternatives? The outcome is the WeSchool learning model – a comprehensive solution that overcomes e-learning biases and crafts immersive online and blended learning experiences.