Learning Nerd’s Diary #61

Welcome back Learning Nerds!

This week we will deep dive & understand us humans better! By understanding psychology to using tools and frameworks to keep the learners top of mind - this week’s newsletter is all heart ❤️

👀 Sneak peak

Here is what I have in store for you this week -

💭 Learning About Learning: Core (Learning) Needs

🥜 Learning Nugget: Core of Learning

💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt This Week:

  • Learner Transformation Framework

  • Research for Learning

  • The Campfire Learning Experience

🔦 Spotlight: The biggest challenge for a learning experience designer today

Let's jump right in!


💭 Learning About Learning

Are you addressing your learners core psychological needs?

Last week I attended The Empathy Conversation Café by ​Alexandra Goetzfried as part of the awesome L&D Shakers. One of the things Alexendra shared during the event were 4 core psychological needs that every human has - Attachment, Control, Confidence & Pleasure.

Our learners are no different!

Let’s unpack what they mean and what they can do for learning:

1/ Attachment 🖇️

Our attachment to other humans is what makes us human. We want to be loved and appreciated.

In our learning experiences, this becomes critical. Learning experiences need to foster a feeling of belonging. Our learners need to feel attached to their peers, the facilitator and the learning environment.

Here are some ideas on how you can leverage attachment in learning experiences:

  • Create small rituals that you start or end sessions with. Ritual are a great way to foster connection

  • Recognise learners for things they do - build a culture of celebration!

2/ Control 🕹️

As humans we desire a safe environment where we feel in control and where we feel that we can drive change. We like feeling relaxed and in control.

In our learning experiences, we often take a top-down approach to learning. As facilitators and designers, the locus of control is in our hands. But learning experiences can offer agency to the learners as well. This makes them feel more engaged and instills a greater sense of ownership.

Here are some ideas on how you can leverage control in learning experiences:

  • Allow the learners to choose how they’d like to express their understanding - is it a tweet or a presentation or something else?

  • Give the learners the choice to pick the topic of their project - this could be from an existing list as well!

3/ Confidence 💪🏻

As humans we want to feel competent, valuable and appreciated by others. We want to feel confident and have a sense of self worth.

In our learning experiences, confidence can be a game changer! By making our learners confident, we add to their motivation and learning outcomes!

Here are some ideas on how you can leverage confidence in learning experiences:

  • Create space for learners to do a shoutout for others - this helps them recognise people have been helpful and feel happy for being recognised

  • Create shorter feedback loops for learners to quickly test their understanding and gauge where they stand & how far they still have to go

4/ Pleasure ❤️

As humans we seek pleasure. We’re hardwired to do more of things from which we derive joy and run away from things that give us pain.

In our learning experiences, we rarely think about pleasure. Engagement? Yes. Motivation? Yes. But pleasure? Maybe not. Our emotions can be great building blocks for learning.

Here are some ideas on how you can leverage pleasure in learning experiences:

  • Leverage surprise in learning experiences as a dopamine hit. What can you do for your learners to feel instant joy or happiness?

  • Use the 3Cs to spark joy - Choice, Celebration & Conversation! More on this here

In short, Attachment, Control, Confidence & Pleasure are core psychological needs that facilitators & designers can leverage to make more engaging & impactful learning experiences!


🥜 Learning Nuggets

How to design delightful and engaging learning experiences?

Keep your learner at the core!


💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt this Week

The Learner Transformation Framework

Last year, I attended the Course Design Accelerator by Dr. Philippa Hardman. One of the frameworks we covered in the course was The Learner Transformation Framework -

Often times as designers and facilitators of learning experiences, we come from the lens of learning or the subject matter. By flipping the lens and asking first, “Who is our learner?” we’re able design experiences more suited for our learners! Here is an article where you can learn more from Phil!

 

Research in Learning

I started my career working as a user researcher. Research is a power tool in the arsenal of a learning experience designer. At NextLeap, research is an active part of the course creation process. Here are 2 ways in which we use research:

  • Building the right course - focused on the what and why

  • Building the course right - focused on the how

Curious to know more? Check out this article I wrote last year!

The Campfire Learning Experience

Stories are at the very core of what makes us human. Ross in this article talks about how campfires can be a great inspiration for learning. Here is a small excerpt:

We’ve gone from connecting through stories over warm fires and learning about the world around us to the commodification of content in centralised walled gardens driven by mass marketing and delivered on a soulless conveyor belt of overwhelming consumption with decision fatigue.


🔦 Spotlight

I was a part of a lovely evening hosted by  Ramabhadran Sundaram  for  Teach for India  on Learning Experience Design. Here is a fun meme we made as part of that session to highlight the challenges we face as Learning Experience Designers today -


Love & Learning

Until we meet next week!


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Core (Learning) Needs