This document discusses trends in how today's learners want to learn and implications for training departments. It summarizes that modern learners want flexibility in when and how they learn, and to learn from peers as much as experts. They are taking control of their own development. However, the common myth that attention spans are shrinking is debunked by research showing how the brain prefers micro-learning in small chunks. New trends of personalization and transparency are discussed in relation to personalized learning experiences and greater knowledge sharing. Training departments need to facilitate growth mindsets, teach learning skills, and support continuous learning through informal experiences and social learning. The workplace must recognize that learning happens naturally through work.

1. Separating Fact from Fiction: Today’s
Learners, What Do They Really Want
(and Need)?
Sponsored by:
@degreed @mikemmoon
#whatlearnerswant

2. 15+ years in HR: practitioner, analyst, and academic
Industry Experience:
• Analyst: Research Director, Aberdeen Group; Senior HCM Researcher, i4cp
• HR Practitioner: Thomson Reuters, Raytheon, John Hancock, Vistaprint, Fleet
Bank (now Bank of America)
 Talent & Development, OD, HR Analytics, HRIS, HR Management, and L&D
Education and Certifications:
• PhD, Human Capital Management: Bellevue University
• Master of Science, Human Resources: Suffolk University
• Master of Music, Musical Theatre: Boston Conservatory
• Bachelor of Science, Theatre: Eckerd College
• Memberships/Certifications: SHRM, NEHRA, AOM, Actor’s Equity; PHR (HRCI)
Dr. Michael M. Moon
Founder & Principal
Consultant, MMM &
Associates
@mikemmoon
www.linkedin.com/in/mikemmoon
mmm@michaelmoonhcm.com

3.  The basic tenets of adult learning theory, the brain-science behind
micro-learning, and a few other geeky things about learning
 Understand the role that “personalization” and “transparency” play in a
Learning function
 Practical guidance on how to transform from a “Training” mindset to a
“Ubiquitous (continuous)” mindset
Today’s Webinar

4. Order of Topics
 Today’s Learners: Myth #1 and #2
 Technology: Personalization and Transparency
 What’s a Training Department to Do?
 Rethinking the Modern Workplace

5. Myth #1
The Modern Learner Wants…

6. The Modern Learner...
“…flexibility in where and how they learn is
increasingly important.”
“…they want to learn from their peers and managers
as much as from experts.”
“…they are taking control over their own
development”
- Bersin by Deloitte, Meet the Modern Learner, 2014
“…want options and to choose when, where, what, and how
to learn”
- DDI, The Rise of The Learning Experience Manager, 2016
“…is more interested in exploring on their own and
learning from peers than being told what to do when”.
- Intrepid Learning
Image Source: Bersin by Deloitte, Dec. 2014
“Today’s employees are overwhelmed,
distracted, and impatient.”

7. Pedagogy vs. Andragogy
Image source: http://assets.uxbooth.com/uploads/2014/12/andragogy.jpg
Based on the work of Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998)
 the art or science
of teaching
PEDAGOGY
 the method and practice of
teaching adult learners
ANDRAGOGY

8. Andragogy
1. Adults are motivated to learn as the experience needs
and interests that learning will satisfy
2. Adults orientation to learning is life centered
3. Experience is the richest source for adults learning
4. Adults have a deep need to be self-directing
5. Individual differences among people increase with age –
therefore, provision should be made for differences in
style, time, place, and pace of learning.
Source: Eduard Lindeman (1926), The Meaning of Education

9. Myth #2
We are simply too busy, the attention span of
today’s learners is shrinking…

10. Everyone’s Attention Span is Shrinking…
 12 -> 8 seconds
 Thank the internet and smartphones
 Crave information
 Better at multi-tasking, well, sort-
of…
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11607315/Humans-have-shorter-attention-span-than-goldfish-thanks-to-smartphones.html

11. Working Memory
Chunking, Mnemonics, and Neuroscience, Oh My!
Chunking:
7 +/- 2 numbers
4404249231
440 424 9231
Mnemonics:
ROY G. BIV = colors of the spectrum
(Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
Techniques for Improving Working Memory

12. Micro-Learning is not a Trend, The Brain Simply Likes
Smaller Chunks
 Micro-learning - a way of teaching, delivering and/or consuming
content in small, very specific and targeted bursts.
 Think “bite-sized learning” or “learning nugget”.
 Usually completed in less than 4 minutes making it digestible,
and easily manageable.
 Can be personalized to the learner in terms of content, pace,
time, topic, etc.
 Case Study: Baker Hughes - reusable bite-sized content

13. Personalization &
Transparency
Two Learning Trends Coming out of 2015

14. Personalization
 Technology affords greater personalization
• Mass Customization
• Accessible
• Adaptive
• Continuous
 Personalized Experience vs. Content
 Personalized Learning Experience
 xAPI (Experience API or Tin Can API)
Image Source: https://tincanapi.com/overview/

15. What Can Personalization Look Like?
Source: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2016/03/20/supporting-all-the-ways-people-learn-at-work/; Jane Hart
Activities:
• Enabling flexible (and social)
internal content.
• Curate external content and
learning opportunities
• Offer/Facilitate Communities
of Practice
• Orchestrate large-scale
networking or learning events

16. Transparency as the New Norm
 Technology facilitates greater levels of transparency
• Goal Planning
• Feedback
• ESN
 Trust – blogs, 2-way communication
 Knowledge sharing
 Learning
• Encourage employees to share what they know - Coactive
vicarious learning

17. What’s a Training
Department to Do?
Practical Guidance

18. Learning Experience Manager
Source: DDI: http://www.ddiworld.com/blog/tmi/february-2016/the-rise-of-the-learning-experience-manager,
by Barry Stern and Russ White
Implications for L&D?
 Content curators
 Experience facilitators
 Potential architects

19. Teach employees “how to learn”
 Practice
• Testing
• Distributed
• Interleaved
 Elaborative
Interrogation (why)
 Self-explanation
Video: Learning how to learn | Barbara
Oakley | TEDxOaklandUniversity
Source: http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/assessing-the-evidence-for-the-one-thing-you-never-get-taught-in-school-how-to-learn
10 techniques for improving learning

20. Fixed vs. Growth Mindset
 Self-directed
learning does not
come easy for
everyone
 Growth mindset
does not come
naturally for all
either
 Requires L&D to
facilitate

21. Using Technology and Social Learning to Improve a Growth Mindset: Xerox
Xerox
 Create pathways
to empower the
self-directed
learner

22. Using Technology and Social Learning to Improve a Growth Mindset: Xerox
Learning Events
1. Reflection
2. Social Learning
Activity
Xerox

23. Using Technology and Social Learning to Improve a Growth Mindset: Xerox
 Growth Mindset –
Activity
 Enable
application,
reflection and
social learning
through sharing
Xerox

24. Personal Knowledge Mastery (PKM)
• Seek – valuable information
• Sense – reflect and reinforce
• Share – exchange and collaborate
Similar to Nonaka and Takeuchi
Image source: http://jarche.com/pkm/

25. Continuous Learning
 Continuous e-learning expands the parameters that
once limited training to an at-work activity
 Requires the right mix of formal, informal and
experiential learning
“We are all always in the process of evolving of becoming.”
– M. Moon

26. Rethinking the Modern Workplace (by Jane Hart)
 RECOGNIZE that learning happens as a natural part of work
 APPRECIATE that learning happens as much for themselves by
using the Web in their daily activities
 VALUES self-organized learning
 REALIZES that evaluating impact of what is learned is more
important than what was learned
 UNDERSTANDS that everyone has a responsibility for learning in
the workplace

27. Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me on Twitter @mikemmon &
mmm@michaelmoonhcm.com