3Ps of Learning

How to solve or learner motivation? Focus on the 3 Ps of learning - Purpose, Progress & Performance

Purpose

Purpose refers to the why of learning. This means having answers to questions like -

• Why am I learning this?

• How will this add value to my life?

• What is the end goal?

We tend to not pay as much attention to this as we should - both as learners and as learning experience designers. But defining the purpose of learning is very fundamental to learner motivation and retention.

Progress

Progress means how far you’ve come in your learning journey. Progress requires to answers to questions like -

• Where did I start? Where am I now?

• How much of the journey is over?

We don’t celebrate progress as much as we should. But pausing to acknowledge how far we’ve come can go a long way in how learners feel about their own learning journeys. Not seeing progress often leads to people giving up their learning journeys mid-way.

Performance

Performance refers to your knowledge or skills at a given point in time. Performance means answering questions like -

• How much do I know at a given point of time?

• What can I do at a given point of time?

• How do I are according to an objective standard test x?

Traditional learning systems focus a lot on performance. While doing away with performance is not the key, it is important to ask where should this come in the learning journey and what value is it adding for the learner. Without being able to gauge our performance - we don’t know if what we know is enough or not.

Whether you are creating learning experiences, or just learning something new - the 3Ps of learning can help you keep learners motivated throughout the learning experiences and create more meaningful learning journeys.