As technology advances and people are more connected to the internet and social media than ever, it becomes increasingly important for our workplace training methods to be current, effective and engaging. So how do you keep your audience from losing interest? That is exactly what prompted my partner Eugene and I, to start looking at modern trends in workplace training and the changing roles of the instructor with each method. Following are a list of the newest trends in workplace training. Trends 1. E-learning: One of the major trends in workplace training is using e-learning to conduct workshops. Many companies including Westjet and Google have already started using these methods to train their employees. E-learning is fast, effective, and in most cases you can complete it without leaving the comfort of your home. Here are some of the top advances in e-learning.
2. Being Connected: By far the most prevailing trend in workplace training is being connected. This often happens in our modern age via online social media platforms. These platforms allow people to be able to get immediate feedback on their thoughts, ideas, and questions, while reaching a large audience at the same time.
3. More Collaborative Platforms: Another trend we noticed in workplace training is that its not just important for people to have access to new information but for them to be able to share what they learn and collaborate with others. Modern technology and new apps have provided trainers with interactive tools and platforms that allow their participants to do just that.
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All in all, workplace training seems to have embraced and adopted several new technologies, keeps people connected with each other, and demands shareability of information. As we can see, workshops have also become more personalized to the audience and emphasize practice with the opportunity for immediate feedback. Changing Roles of the Facilitator
In the past the role of the workshop facilitator was to be more of a content knowledge expert but as you can see from the picture above, modern day corporate training looks very different. In our discussion, my partner Eugene and I, identified 3 main ideas of what modern day workshop facilitating looks like: 1. Building an atmosphere of Trust, 2. Active Listening & Summarizing, and 3. Feedback. Building An Atmosphere of Trust: Even though present day workshops require participation from everyone and in many cases your participation is evaluated, most people are still going to be reluctant to speak up. This is where the facilitator comes in. According to MindTools.com, the first thing you need to do is to "build trust" in your role as a facilitator (2011). Creating good rapport with participants in the beginning of your workshop allows participants to feel like they can trust you and they will be more likely to join in the discussion. Another disarming technique facilitators can use is to offer anecdotal examples from their own life. This makes the facilitator more relatable, which draws out further participation. Active Listening and Summarizing: Active listening is when we proactively look and listen for what a participant is trying to communicate. In other words, "fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’ the message of the speaker" (SkillsYouNeed, 2015). The key here is to see what they already know and adapt the workshop to their needs so you avoid wasting time going over things they already know. The second skill in active listening is to be able to summarize group ideas succinctly. This involves both recording of outputs and verbal summarization of key points. This keeps the group on track and shows that you've understood any emotion or key concepts they've expressed. Feedback: In their workbook "Designing Successful Workshops" Yvonne Steinert & Marie-Noel Oullet from the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University explain that feedback is, in fact, more important than tests and evaluations. Workplace trainees require feedback in order to adapt their learning strategies. Moreover, feedback provides "support in the moment of need, in bite-sized chunks that are targeted to the task or question at hand" (Allison Rosset, 2015). Thus, the facilitator's role turns from that of a content distributor to that of a coach, providing encouragement and feedback to trainees as they need. Web-conferencing Experience I really enjoyed the web-conference I had with my partner for this project. It was interesting to see his approach and gain new insights on our topic of workplace training trends and how the role of the facilitator changes overtime. One point I hadn't considered prior to this was that changes in participant roles precipitate changes in facilitating roles. That means moving forward, we can predict how the roles of the facilitator will change based on the changing roles of participants. It was also interesting partnering up with Eugene for this task because of his background in the corporate world. He was able to draw on personal examples of workshop trends that he has noticed in his company. It was great having real-time data like that. Overall, web-conferencing, I believe, proved to be quite helpful. References
Hart, Jane. (2015, October 2). Ten Trends for Workplace Learning (from the top 100 tools for learning 2015). Retrieved from http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2015/10/02/10-trends/ MindTools.com. (2011). Rebuilding Morale. [Online]. Retrieved from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/morale.htm. [Accessed: August 12, 2011]. Rossett, Allison. (2015, January).Trending in Workplace Learning 2015... Retrieved from http://www.allisonrossett.com/2015/01/13/trending-in-workplace-learning-2015/ SkillsYouNeed (2015) Active listening [online] available atwww.skillsyouneed.com/general/what-is-communication.html (Accessed April 26 2015) Retrieved from: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html Steinert, Y., & Ouellet, M.N. (2012). Designing Successful Workshops. Montréal: McGrill University. Retrieved from https://www.mcgill.ca/medicinefacdev/files/medicinefacdev/DesigningWorkshopsWorkbook.pdf_
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