Lectures are the worst way to teach employees -- and the most common

Isn't it about time we hunted down and laid to rest lectures as a way to teach employees?

New Moon just opened in theatres, so maybe that's why I have vampires on my mind.

But as I was looking over yet another mailing filled with dry "training" books and canned lectures, I could not help but think of putting a stake deep into the heart of this long-since-dead training method and making the corporate world a whole lot safer for the rest of us.

We all know that standing at the front of a classroom talking at a group of people who would rather be almost anywhere else that this is a lousy way for one adult to teach other adults. Heck, we've suffered through it ourselves since elementary school and well into our professional careers. Over and over and over. And yet we do it.

Thank about what you and I and almost everyone else does during a training lecture...

We sit. We fidget. We doodle. We check our watches a dozen times, then count our blessings when the lecture is over, hoping no one answers the call for "Questions, anyone?"

Sound familiar?

How much learning do you think goes on in that kind of setting? So why, why, why are we STILL doing it?

Some alternatives to turning employees into glazed-eyed zombies drawing endless circles and squiggly lines on their notepads....

1) Give your employees something to read about whatever it is they're supposed to be learning. Oh, and make it entertaining. Boring is NOT more professional -- it's just boring.

2) And give them someone or something to watch so they can SEE how the process works. Again. Scrap the boring. Make them smile and their learning curve goes up. An example?



3) Let them try it out. Yes, they may mess up. But they will learn much faster and understand much better if they work through it with their own two hands. If it works for brain surgery -- that's what internships and residency are all about, after all -- it will certainly work for most of the things your company needs employees to do. Learning by doing. Or at the very least, a simulation of doing, followed by for-real doing.

4) If it's not something that can be taught by doing because it's an attitude or a personal skill, let them pretend they're doing it. Or trying to stop someone else from doing it. Or someone is doing it to them. This role-playing approach works great for intangible lessons like discrimination, harassment prevention or managing a group of difficult, opinionated, clueless...opps, sorry. Got off the track a bit there.

Back to what I was saying....

The only part of training employees that really matters is actually TRAINING them! Seat warming and doodling does nothing for them, for you, or for your company.

Get people out of their chairs and get them engaged in whatever it is they're learning.

If it matters that they learn it, make sure your training will actually teach them.

Could Second Life enhance your training program?

On the front page of CNN’s Tech section today is an intriguing new story on how medical students at Imperial College in London are effectively using Second Life for learning.

Using a virtual hospital in Second Life, third-year medical students are receiving “hands-on” experience in what they’ll later be doing in their medical careers including visiting patients, ordering X-rays, consulting with colleagues and making diagnoses.

From the CNN article:

It's an interactive, hands-on learning experience -- and none of it is real.

These prospective doctors are treating virtual patients in Second Life, the Internet world where users interact through online alter egos called avatars. The third-year med students are taking part in a pilot program for game-based learning, which educators believe can be a stimulating change from lectures and textbooks.

"The aim is to develop a more engaging learning environment, rather than just replicate what you have in real life," said Maria Toro-Troconis, a senior learning technologist at Imperial College London. "Game-based learning plays a very important role."

The students’ classroom training is reinforced in Second Life down to the simplest lessons like washing your hands. If students forget to wash their hands before visiting with a patient, the program limits the student from going any farther.



Back in the U.S., companies including Sun Microsystems and IBM have established their own real estate in Second Life to give employees the opportunity to connect on a different level.

Sun Microsystems, a company that has been on Second Life since 2006, owns a variety of property that the company uses for different reasons. Some of their Second Life property is open to the general public and other areas are used specifically for employee training and corporate meetings.

IBM has also been using Second Life and other virtual communities to hold company meetings, conduct online employee training and carry out orientation sessions.

The opportunities for employee training in Second Life and in similar online venues seem endless. Especially with many organizations looking to cut training costs, we may start seeing more companies adopt online training as a cheaper option to traditional methods.

If Second Life can help doctors learn how to treat patients, certainly it can help other organizations train employees in areas like customer service and safety. Whatever your situation, online training has the potential to take your program to the next level.

Have you ever been a part of training or another corporate activity that was held using a virtual platform like Second Life? Do you think there are any added benefits to virtual employee training as opposed to traditional methods?