Sometimes you don't know what will be useful, until it becomes essential

 

Rachel Burnham writes: I was clearing out some shelves in my office the other day and I came across a notebook with my notes (& pictures!) from when I was first learning to facilitate live online sessions – though back then I called them webinars and was just learning to distinguish webinars and virtual classrooms.  It was 2208/9. 

I started learning about them and how to facilitate online out of sheer curiosity, rather than a need or specific demand from a client.  As a result I was able to suggest to a client that we started to make use of live online sessions as part of a blended approach to the redesign of a programme that I went onto to develop.

When the pandemic began I had 10 years’ experience of designing and facilitating live online sessions.   And I was so glad of this!  And the client had developed its provision by then to offer options for all courses that were either blended or totally online.  It was comparatively easy for them to move over their offerings to a totally live online programme.

Somewhere in between these times, a fellow volunteer for CIPD Manchester, Mike Collins, introduced me to using some new-fangled online meeting tool called ‘Zoom’.  As we found it useful for holding planning meetings in the evenings to bring together our small but dispersed team of volunteers for CIPD Manchester’s L&D work we adopted the practice of using it. It saved us all having to struggle into the centre of Manchester for a short meeting and made it much easier to find mutually convenient meeting times.   Back in 2017, it never occurred to me that I would be using Zoom for hosting most of my professional work, chairing CIPD Manchester committee meetings, painting socials, #LnDCoWork Manchester Christmas Curry and even family Christmas parties.

I started using drawing in my work in about 2015 and found myself developing skills in Sketchnoting, before I had even heard of the term!   Now the majority of my work is drawing and Sketchnoting related and I have even illustrated Gary Cookson’s ‘HR for HybridWorking’ book.  My art teachers from school would be flabbergasted.

Last week in the #LDInsight chat 13/1/23, we were discussing how we could explore the use of AI in our work.  And that made me think back to that notebook I had found earlier in the week.

Sometimes, you just don’t know what will be useful and in what way, until it is essential to have that skill and experience. Message to myself - keep exploring, keep learning, keep experimenting.

 

Rachel Burnham

17 January 2023

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

 

 

How paper & pen can enhance virtual learning sessions

 

Rachel Burnham writes: I think paper & pen can enhance the effectiveness of digital learning and particularly virtual learning sessions. I have been experimenting with the use of drawing-based activities over the last few months, as most formal learning, whether in the workplace or in education, has moved into the digital sphere.   

Whilst many in Learning & Development were already using webinar technology, elearning and other digital technologies such as video and podcasts (or at least some of these); for others in L&D, it has been a major shift.    I have been using a range of webinar technologies for live online learning, as part of my practice, for many years.   As fellow professionals have been discovering, there is a whole skill set to designing and delivering effective learning using webinar based technology.  As a Sketchnoter myself, I have been testing out how we can use drawing for more than just a fun element to enable effective learning within live online sessions.  

I am, of course, always keen to encourage the creation of Sketchnotes by individuals to aid their own learning and thinking (see previous blogs on this subject and I offer workshops to help people get started in doing this).  However, I also wanted to explore the how and why of using very simple drawing based activities that any L&D professional could incorporate into their sessions.

I think drawing-based activities offer the following five benefits for learning designers and facilitators:

·       They can add a wider range of options for learning activities beyond the standard polls, chat and whiteboard activities and thus enable online learning to be more tailored for the particular topic and impact required.

·       They bring a hands-on tactile element to a session that can enable a session to standout as more memorable from multiple online sessions, plus give time away from the screen within a session, both of which can contribute to reducing the digital screen or ‘Zoom’ fatigue that many experience.

·       They provide an opportunities for activities that are learner-centred rather than instructional eg asking participants to map out their own understanding of a process or illustrate a concept.   This can be used to create more challenging recap activities, or activities that tease out deep understanding and enable more personal sense-making.

·       They often have the effect of slowing things down and getting participants to think more deeply, which is great for encouraging reflection and application of learning. Drawing often makes use of observation in order to draw a physical object, process, or even our own behaviour – it requires us to slow down and pay attention to ‘what is’, rather than what we think there is. It can help us to notice how things are working currently and provide space to look at what we can do differently.  

·       They can enable different voices to be expressed and new insights gained. Often drawing something out, will help us to see something differently and give us a fresh insight. Drawing-based activities can enable some individuals to express themselves more clearly than other more traditional online activities.  Whilst there is a concern that not all participants may feel comfortable drawing or may feel excluded by a lack of skill, I think that often we don’t recognise that some voices are silenced or muted by the tools we currently use – not everyone is comfortable speaking up over the microphone in the free for all of a Zoom, not everyone is comfortable typing comments into a chat panel eg because of dyslexia.

For example, imagine encouraging a verbal discussion of what ‘leadership’ involves or facilitating a whiteboard activity to record points on the same topic or inviting people to each draw a picture using metaphors of what ‘leadership’ involves, which are then shared and discussed.  The latter often enables different people to express a range of more thoughtful and nuanced ideas, providing the basis for richer learning.

Considerations

I want to be very clear – this is not about learning styles.  Whilst individuals do seem to have preferences for how they learn, there is no evidence to support the idea that using different types of activities to match individual preferences improves the effectiveness of the learning. 

In contrast there is evidence from studies into Dual Coding (see my earlier blog) that the combination of words and pictures used effectively can be a helpful tool in learning for all people.

Secondly, many people feel that they can’t draw or simply haven’t drawn since they were a child and feel uncomfortable drawing.   You don’t need to be an artist to either facilitate these sorts of activities or participate in them – the sorts of activities I have in mind are based upon the simplest of drawing – neither art nor even illustration. You can reassure participants that it is definitely not about the quality of the pictures.

The best way to encourage participants to have a go at a drawing-based activity is to be comfortable with it yourself. Practice drawing in preparation.  Keep the activities simple, be positive & encouraging and focus on facilitating the learning from the activity.

I think getting comfortable with using drawing-based activities within online learning sessions is a great addition to any L&D professionals’ toolkit.  Why not give it a go yourself?

Rachel Burnham 

29 January 2021

For further support

If you would like to explore the use of drawing-based activities but would like some support in getting started, why not sign up for my new short programme ‘The Power of Paper & Pen in Digital Learning’?  I have designed a series of ‘pick-up and use’ drawing-based activities that can be adapted for use in many different contexts – this session will enable you to have a go at them and explore how they can be used.   Follow this link to find out more & book a place. 

 

I help individuals and organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources.  I make use of Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and learning.  

 

The many forms of webinars

Rachel Burnham writes: I am working with a client to help them with their transition to making use of webinar/virtual classroom technology to support learning.   

I created the following graphic to help them think more widely about the different ways that webinar/virtual classroom technology can be used, beyond the idea of webinar as a lecture delivered on-line.  I thought it might be helpful to share this more widely. 

The examples I have included aren’t the only possibilities, nor are they intended as ideals, but as prompts for thought.   The way that you use webinar/virtual classroom technology is a design choice and like other design choices needs to be made with the learning & performance need in mind.

I would love to have some feedback on this.

Rachel Burnham

26/3/2020

I help individuals and organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources.  I make use of Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and learning.  I help people to manage for themselves the information they need to stay up-to-date in their professional work.

10 Resources from 2017 to help you modernise L&D Practice

Rachel Burnham writes: At the start of 2017 I picked out 10 pieces to share to help L&D professionals modernise their L&D practice, so I thought I would do something similar at the start of this year.  

This time I thought I would make the focus very firmly on practical tips and guidance to help us to develop the skills, insights and know-how needed to modernise L&D. In making my selections, I have picked out some of the concerns that have been part of my focus for the past year.  I also have been mindful of the themes which emerged from this year’s benchmarking report by Towards Maturity ‘L&D: Where are we now?’ published in November 2017.  This identifies the top barriers to having a learning culture as including:

·       Cost of set-up, development and maintenance (66%)

·       Lack of skills amongst employees to manage their own learning (65%)

·       Reluctance by line managers to encourage new ways of learning (58%)

·       Lack of skills amongst L&D staff to implement and manage technology enabled learning (53%)

·       Unreliable ICT infrastructure (52%)

As before, I hasten to add that this selection is by no means a best of 2017.  There was lots of great material produced throughout the year – this is my pick of helpful resources. I have included short videos, podcasts, infographics and of course Sketchnotes, alongside written materials.

   

1  1. ‘How to run successful Webinars to add value to your organisation’ Session: Andy Lancaster & Michelle Parry-Slater May 2017 Sketchnote: Rachel Burnham  

This is a Sketchnote I created whilst participating in Andy and Michelle’s excellent session at CIPD’s L&D Show.  The L&D Show conference this year involved a number of very practical workshops which had a ‘how-to’ focus.  This one was a practical introduction to running effective webinars and was packed full of tips and the sharing of experiences.  

    2. ‘How to produce Impactful Videos and Learning Content’ Session: Dr Mark Davies, See Learning May 2017 Sketchnote; Rachel Burnham

My second selection is also one of the Sketchnotes I created from this year’s CIPD L&D Show.  If you are interested in learning to make good quality videos using your smartphone, then Dr Mark Davies of See Learning is ‘the-person’ to get advice from.   He can be found on Twitter under @SeeLearning.  I picked up so many great tips from this session and keep referring back to this Sketchnote. 

    3.‘Apprenticeships: Loving the Levy’ CIPD Podcast 127 July 2017 (about 20 mins on apprenticeships)

In April 2017 the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced.  A lot has been written up about the Levy, what it involves, what the challenges are and more recently about the seemingly paradoxical drop in numbers registered for apprenticeships.  Out of all this material, I have picked this podcast because it shares some great stories about the value of apprenticeships both to individuals and to organisations and challenges some of the misconceptions that apprenticeships are only for young people or only for less skilled roles or only for occupations such as engineering.  It is great story-telling – the best kind – real stories of real people.

    4. ‘Bite-Sized Research on Spaced Retrieval’ Episode 5 October 2017 The Learning Scientists (11.5 mins)

This is another podcast – a new podcast to me – so thank you to Jonathan Marshall @LearningFCO for the recommendation.   This particular episode explores a piece of research into the impact of spaced retrieval on learning effectiveness – if you aren’t familiar with the terms ‘spaced learning’ and ‘retrieval practice’ and are in L&D do take the time to listen to this podcast as it explains them clearly and simply, plus why we need to know about them and be making use of them.

Plus, if you haven’t come across Jonathan before do follow him on Twitter and watch out for his very informative and thoughtful blog posts, in which he shares his learning from his work as the Head of Learning for the Diplomatic Academy.

    5. ‘The Elephant in the Room’ Paul Matthews Training Journal September 2017

I met Paul Matthews for the first time this year at the CIPD NAP conference in York, where we were both delivering sessions.  We started talking then about learning transfer – the elephant in the room, as Paul refers to it and haven’t stopped talking about this since.  Learning Transfer is about how we get learning to really impact on performance in the workplace and links to the other topics Paul has written about previously – performance consulting and informal learning.  Paul wrote this article for Training Journal in the summer, but having started writing has been about how to address learning transfer he has found unable to stop and is in the process of completing a new book on this subject.  Paul can be found on Twitter @PeopleAlchemy.

6.  ‘Digital Curation’ – 3 short videos by Mike Shaw ( 2 mins each) Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

With the increased availability of information and resources via the internet, managing this avalanche of information is an increasing challenge for professionals in all fields.  The term ‘curation’ has been borrowed from the museums and art gallery sector to describe the processes involved in finding, selecting, making sense and using these resources.  Mike Shaw (@MikeShawLD) created these three short videos, now available on YouTube, with Snapchat to introduce people to the idea of digital curation and to explore some of the ways that it can be used in L&D.   Mike and I have been working together over the last year on developing our curation practices and on using curation in the design of L&D programmes.  Here is a blog I wrote on the subject.

 

   7. ‘Niall and Rachel’s VR Odyssey’ blogs and recordings

In the Spring of 2017, Niall Gavin (@NiallGavinUK) and I began exploring how L&D could make use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and we shared our learning in a series of blog posts and recorded conversations on Zoom and available on YouTube.   The improving technology in this field, its increasing popularity in the consumer market and its increased accessibility, is getting more organisations thinking about how they can make use of these technologies to support learning. The resources we produced provide a basic introduction to some of the uses of this technology in L&D.

    8. ‘LearningTechnologies: What managers really think’ GoodPractice in association with ComRes November 2017

GoodPractice has for the last few years produced a series of research reports exploring what managers real practice is around learning and how they perceive & make use of technology to meet the challenges they face in their day to day work.   This year’s research report explores their attitudes towards some of the key technologies available in workplaces to support learning and uncovers some perhaps surprising positive results in relation to managers’ views of elearning and other technologies.   The free report not only reports on the results of the research, but includes some very helpful practical and detailed takeaways for L&D professionals about how to maximise the potential of technology in organisations.   The suggestions directly address some of the barriers identified by Towards Maturity at the start of this blog.

    9.   ‘Future of technology and learning’ Report & Infographic CIPD & Towards Maturity November 2017

At about the same time that GoodPractice was producing its report into technology and learning, CIPD and Towards Maturity were also launching theirs!  This report makes use of the Towards Maturity benchmarking data, and digs in deeper to how L&D is using different technologies for different aspects of learning eg games, collaboration.  It makes a series of recommendations to help us, in L&D, become a bit more sophisticated in our thinking and practice in the use of technology to support learning eg by getting us to really think through how different learning technologies support approaches to learning such as collaboration and gamification.   

    10. #accessibilitytipoftheday Mike Osborne series of posts on Twitter

My final selection is a recommendation to check out this hashtag (ie search criteria) on Twitter for a whole array of suggestions, tips and recommendations to support improved accessibility for learning resources and digital learning.   This is a great initiative by Mike Osborne to improve awareness and action from all of us in L&D to ensure that learning opportunities are open to all and don’t exclude people.   You can find Mike on Twitter @MikeOzzy.

I have enjoyed putting this collection or curation together.  There are so many other great resources out there to tap into.  I would be keen to hear of your recommendations.

Rachel Burnham

8/1/18

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals update and refresh their skills.  I do this through: writing & design commissions; facilitating learning to update knowhow, 1:1 and bespoke ‘train the trainer’ programmes; and the use of Sketchnoting to facilitate learning. 

Complete Collection of My Sketchnotes from the CIPD L&D Show 2017

Rachel Burnham writes: I have been fortunate to spend the last two days at the CIPD L&D Show as a member of the BlogSquad.  This is the team of volunteers who report on the conference via social media through Twitter, blogs and video tools (eg Periscope and SnapChat).  During the event my preferred medium is to Sketchnote, which I then photograph and tweet out on the hashtag for the event #cipdldshow, though I also produced a short video, using SnapChat, to capture a flavour of the second day and this is now available on YouTube.  

The conference is fast paced with up to four sessions a day and a number of different options for each of these sessions – all relevant to today’s L&D professionals.  Some sessions such as the ones on webinars and creating your own videos using your mobile phone, which I report on below, were highly practical tips sharing sessions.  Other sessions were more about giving the big picture and sharing stimulating ideas - an excellent example was Dr Liz Mellon’s session on ‘Creating Agile Workforces’.  Whilst others focused on sharing practical experience from organisations - great examples of this were Sarah Lindsell, from PwC, drawing on her experience of creating a ‘Future-Fit L&D Strategy’ and also both speakers in the session on ‘Upskilling your managers to have Effective Coaching Conversations’.    

In addition, there was also the exhibition hall full of stands and lots of free short sessions to attend.   For a flavour of this why not take a look at these two short videos, also produced on SnapChat, by my colleague Mike Shaw – Day 1 and Day 2.   I participated in a session about the launch of the new BSI standards for L&D PD76006 and you will find my Sketchnote about this below.

At this stage, my head is still reeling with the amount of information and ideas bouncing around.  I know it will take me some time to sort through and make some sense out of this.  I will be blogging on my learning and reflections from the Show over the coming days and weeks. 

In the meantime, here are all nine of the Sketchnotes I created live at the Show.

Rachel Burnham



12/5/17

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals update and refresh their skills.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the use of digital skills for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance. 

5 Books to Help You Get Out of the Training Room

Rachel Burnham writes:  Here are some wonderful, practical yet inspiring books to help you to create relevant and useful learning opportunities that aren’t limited to face to face delivery in a training room.  They aren’t brand new books – but they are full of useful advice that can help you to try out different approaches and build on the experience of experts.

‘The Blended Learning Cookbook’ 2^nd Edition by Clive Shepherd (2008) Published by Saffron Interactive.

As the title suggests this book is all about blended learning and how to design learning effectively using a mix of learning methods.  It opens with three short sections which provide some background to the topic and overall thinking, before moving onto the core of the book which is a series of practical examples of different blended programmes designed to meet a range of needs.   The great thing about these examples is the sheer variety and this means that it can give you some great ideas for starting points for designs to meet needs in your own organisation.  

‘Informal Learning At Work – How to Boost Performance in Tough Times’ by Paul Matthews (2013) Published by Three Faces Publishing.

In this book Paul Matthews explores informal learning – those very many learning opportunites beyond formal courses and education.  He sets out the advantages to be gained from recognising & encouraging informal learning in organisations and sets out how L&D teams can encourage a learnscape that facilitates this.   He includes many examples to illustrate his points and provides evidence of the effectiveness of informal learning.  He includes lots of examples of different forms of informal learning, so that you get a great sense of the range of possibilities.  

My only criticism of this book, is that there are sometimes so many examples provided that you lose the narrative thread  (well I did!), but this does make it a great resource bank.

I have also written about informal learning in an earlier post 'Lift off for Informal Learning'.

‘Social Media for Trainers – Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning’ by Jane Bozarth (2010) Published by John Wiley.

This book has a very special place on my bookshelf, as it played a significant part in getting me into using Twitter.  I had taken it along to a workshop to share with some CLDP students, one of whom was already on Twitter.  Before the workshop started she tweeted Jane Bozarth and by the time we broke for morning coffee, we had had an answer back from Jane!  I was sold on Twitter from that moment!

The book is both great as a guide to key examples of social media – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Wikis and even better at providing many, many suggestions of how these can be used to enable learning.  These suggestions are set out so clearly, that you don’t need to be particularly tech-savvy to see how these can work and to give them a go.

‘Job Aids & Peformance Support – Moving from Knowledge in the Classroom to Knowledge Everywhere’ by Allison Rossett & Lisa Schafer (2007) Published by John Wiley.

Job aids & performance support are playing an increasingly important role alongside learning opportunities.  Performance support enables us to draw upon resources at the point of need to enable us to do a task efficiently & effectively.  This means that there are a whole range of work related tasks that we no longer need to learn in their entirety, but can rely on finding the resources to help us, either to prepare or to use during completion of the task.  At a time when there is more and more that we need to be able to do and constant change in the information we need to work with, it makes sense to not only use learning to meet these needs, but also performance support.  Sometimes learning on its own will be appropriate, sometimes performance support will be sufficient and sometimes both will be needed.  

Again, this book is packed out with examples & illustrations to enable you to see the possibilities and start to make use of them yourself.

‘The New Virtual Classroom’ by Ruth Colvin Clark & Ann Kwinn (2007) Published by John Wiley

I found this an invaluable guide to designing & delivering webinars/virtual classrooms ie usually short learning sessions delivered via the internet which bring learners at a distance together at the same time.   It provides excellent suggestions and tips for creating effective interactive webinars to meet different sorts of learning needs from computer based skills to knowledge & understanding  The book is all based very firmly on research and experience.   I have also found that it has influenced my practice in face to face delivery, as many of the points have a wider application.

I have also written about my own experience of webinars in a previous post, which you may find of interest 'My Learning About Webinars'. 

Each one of these five books has earned its place on my bookshelves.  With this collection to draw upon, there is no reason to limit yourself and your organisation to face to face learning in workshops and every reason to consider other options.

I would love to hear your comments on these book suggestions and also your own ideas.   What has been your experience of making use of these other learning methods?

Rachel Burnham

15/9/14

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance.

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD