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ABC Model of Behavior: How to Inspire Change in Learners

Role: Learning leader

ABC Model of Behavior: How to Inspire Change in Learners

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

Do you have a behavior you hope to change in yourself or your learners? Before jumping straight into developing a new learning experience to address it, consider using the ABC Model of Behavior to gain a better understanding of the problem first.

Learning doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and sometimes learning alone isn’t enough. That’s where the ABC Behavior Model comes in to help us assess the environment, events, and reactions surrounding the behavior that may be triggering and enabling it. Even the best training in the world will fail to achieve lasting behavior change if it doesn’t account for the challenges and opportunities of the real-world environment in which learners will apply what they’ve learned. Sometimes training isn’t even a necessary part of the equation—the behavior may be more a reaction to the environment than a lack of understanding of the desired behavior.

The bottom line: behavior can be impacted by more than just learning. The ABC Model of Behavior provides guidance for thinking through how environment and incentives shape behavior. Let’s take a closer look at the framework and explore a few ABC Model of Behavior examples.

What is the ABC Model of Behavior?

The ABC Model is a framework, often used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), used to achieve behavior modification. The ABC Behavior Model was created by American psychologist Albert Ellis in the 1950s as part of a behavior-based therapy methodology that served as a precursor to the now more widely-known CBT.

ABC is an acronym for Antecedents, Behaviors (or in some cases, Beliefs), and Consequences. At the center of the ABC Model is, of course, the Behavior, or Belief (B). The ABC Model of Behavior provides a lens for us to better understand an observable behavior or belief by examining the antecedent, or activating event (A), that triggered it. Then, we examine the consequences (C) of and reactions to the behavior. In other words, an antecedent triggers a behavior, and that behavior has a consequence.

The ABC Behavior Model is a powerful tool for looking at the whole picture instead of focusing too singularly on a problem behavior itself. This provides a deeper understanding of why a behavior is happening and helps inform more effective interventions to change or modify the behavior.

The ABC Model of Behavior applied to learning

Now that we understand what the ABC Behavior Model is, let’s look at how it can be applied to learning. When we understand the factors that influence how learners behave, we can identify alternate or supplemental solutions that help trigger the behavior we hope to see instead.

“Learning should create change” is one of the four learning principles that shapes all of our work. The ABC Model is an essential tool for how we achieve behavior change through learning. To help us understand the factors that shape behavior, we like to apply a nuanced version of the ABC Model of Behavior. Learning is a form of intervention: we seek to influence or modify behaviors by helping learners identify different and more effective ways to respond to situations (also known as antecedents, or activating events).

The idea behind the ABC Model in learning is that antecedents (A), with an emphasis on the environment, and consequences (C), with an emphasis on incentives, influence behavior. To demonstrate how that can play out in a realistic scenario, let’s look at an example from training expert Cathy Moore’s book, Map It (we’re big Cathy Moore fans!) and how ABC behavior modification works in practice.

In this scenario, a nurse working in a hospital frequently draws blood and must dispose of the needles properly to prevent any workplace accidents. Through learning, we can share why it’s important to properly dispose of needles, show how to do it, simulate an experience for him to practice, and validate his ability to do it successfully. As a result, we may increase the rate of properly-disposed needles—but is learning alone enough to achieve the desired behavior change?

Let’s take a look at how the environment (or, antecedents) and incentives (or, consequences) influence the rate of proper disposal of needles.

Antecedents, or environment

Environment, inspired by antecedents in the ABC framework, can influence whether a learner’s behavior follows what was learned. Conducting a Learning Environment Analysis will help you uncover barriers preventing the behavior change from taking place.

Let’s say that during field observations, you notice that the hospital rooms are often not adequately stocked with needle disposal equipment. As a result, the nurse might take the path of least resistance and dispose of the needles another way. His behavior is more a reaction to the environment than a lack of understanding of proper needle disposal.

Or, perhaps during learner interviews you discover that the need to dispose of needles occurs rarely enough that it is difficult to remember the proper steps, resulting in a high rate of improper disposal. In that case, simple reference materials posted in each hospital room might increase compliance without the need for more learning.

Consequences, or incentives

Incentives, our interpretation of consequences in the ABC Model, also motivate how learners choose to behave. Let’s suppose the nurse receives a bonus based on patient satisfaction scores, and proper needle disposal has no impact on those scores. This would actually be a disincentive for the nurse to dispose of needles properly, especially if he’s busy.

Or, maybe there’s no way of tracking which nurses properly disposed of their needles. In that case, there would be no extrinsic incentive for the nurse to follow proper protocol. Rather than hoping the nurse does the right thing out of intrinsic motivation, perhaps the training should be adjusted to focus on the risks of improper needle disposal and how to safely handle the consequences. It makes more sense to take a cue from the ABC model of behavior therapy and adjust the incentives to create the desired behavior.

Learning alone isn’t enough

Behavior is affected by more than just learning, and the potential to change behavior can be limited by external factors. As learning professionals, our efforts are almost always focused on inspiring behavior change. But in many cases, the only way to achieve that end is by paying just as much attention to the environment and incentives influencing that behavior.

The ABC Model of Behavior helps us gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the learning problem. The responsibilities of L&D stretch far beyond simply producing courses. Taking a holistic, consultative approach can uncover the root cause and achieve the lasting change we’re after.

Tell, Show, Do, Review: An Essential Learning Blueprint

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

At Maestro, we know that learning is a process—a one-and-done approach simply doesn’t work for most learners and most content. In fact, we’re so certain that learning is a process that we’ve made it a foundational Maestro Learning Principle (LP.02). We also know that designing learning as a process can be daunting—but it doesn’t have to be. Using the Tell, Show, Do, Review framework provides a convenient blueprint to architect effective learning experiences that are modeled after the way learners actually learn.

What is Tell, Show, Do, Review?

Tell, Show, Do, Review is a method that incorporates a variety of modalities to create effective, engaging learning experiences that mirrors the way learners learn. As a learning professional, this structure can be a helpful tool in your toolbox. But before you can use this framework, you need to understand it. Here are the four phases.

Tell

The first step is to tell learners what they need to know and why it’s important. As a learning professional, “telling” manifests as instructing, lecturing, or otherwise explaining a lesson for learners.

Examples of Tell learning experiences:

  • Book
  • Article
  • Job aid
  • Lecture
  • Basic eLearning course

While these experiences all provide value and can be useful instructional tools, on their own, they are unlikely to create the meaningful change that learning as a process can create.

Show

The second step is to show learners how to practically apply their learning. This provides an opportunity for you as a learning professional to demonstrate and model behaviors so learners can see the learning in action.

Examples of Show learning experiences:

  • Demonstration
  • Instructional how-to video
  • Job shadowing activity

Showing a learner how a task is done can be tremendously helpful, but learners typically need to practice the skills themselves as well.

Do

The third step is to have learners do the task or apply their learning themselves. This grants learners the opportunity to practice what they learned in a safe, controlled environment where they can fail with little to no repercussions. Consider this the rehearsal stage before they take their new skills and apply them in the real world.

Examples of Do learning experiences:

  • Simulation
  • Role play exercise
  • Scenario

And while it’s critical that learners have an opportunity to test their new skills, it’s equally important that there’s a review of their abilities, so they can make necessary adjustments and continue to improve.

Review

The fourth step is to provide feedback to learners about their performance so they can continue to hone their skills—moving from occasionally getting it right to always getting it right. As a learning professional, this is where you would help your learners assess their progress and explore ways in which they can continue to improve.

Examples of Review learning experiences:

  • Coaching
  • Providing feedback (written or oral)

This step helps learners get better, so they can more competently and confidently apply their learning in the real world.

Can you skip the do or review stage?

Many basic learning formats utilize tell and/or show without incorporating Do or Review. Tell and Show learning experiences allow the learner to be a passive observer (often with little to no interaction between the learner and the instructor) and are popular among eLearning courses and how-to videos, like YouTube tutorials.

So do you really need the Do and Review stages? While there can be some powerful Tell and/or Show learning experiences, research demonstrates that having a Do and Review stage is really important. In fact, failure to include these final stages into your learning likely won’t create the meaningful change you’re aiming for—even if learners think it did. Without a Do or Review stage, learners might think they’ve grasped the content when they actually haven’t. This is called the illusion of explanatory depth, which occurs when people feel that they understand a complex topic or concept better than they actually do. It’s only when learners put their learning into practice that they realize they know less than they thought they did.

Because each step of Tell, Show, Do, Review works in tandem with the other steps, they function best when used together. In many cases, the Tell, Show, Do, Review method may work as a repeating cycle, as learners continue building on their learning and practicing new skills—restarting from the top and repeating the process more than once until they’ve successfully mastered the content. Without the Do and Review stages, learners may think they’ve successfully mastered the content when they really haven’t. And as learning professionals, the last thing we want to do is waste the learner’s time or our time by creating learning experiences that fail to create the meaningful change we’re after.

How learners learn

Using the Tell, Show, Do, Review method works because that’s how learners learn. Rarely, if ever, can someone master something through a one-and-done learning approach. By crafting your learning to match the way people actually learn, you’re much more likely to create an effective, successful learning experience.

For example, consider the process you might undergo to learn to be a better singer. First, you might seek out a vocal instructor, someone who tells you what to do and demonstrates it for you. From here, you’d try it for yourself, referring to your instructor for further guidance as you continue to hone your skills. To truly learn to become a better singer, it will take time and practice. This example isn’t the exception, it’s the rule—learning a new skill is a multi-step process, and the Tell, Show, Do, Review method facilitates that process.

Designing effective learning

Tell, Show, Do, Review isn’t just helpful for learners, this method is also a useful tool for learning and development professionals. When planning a new course or designing a learning experience, it can be difficult to know where to start, how to structure your content, or what modalities will work best. This is where Tell, Show, Do, Review can give you a headstart.

Tell, Show, Do, Review can adeptly move learners from basic to advanced, building on their skill level and knowledge to set them up for long-term success and meaningful behavior change. Because this framework utilizes tight loops of learning that reinforce key concepts, layers and scaffolds content in different formats, and incorporates opportunities for application and reflection, the Tell, Show, Do, Review method provides a convenient, ready-made structure for learning that’s designed to be effective.

Think of Tell, Show, Do, Review as a shortcut—by laying out this blueprint and using it to guide you in your design, you can stop stressing about the framework and start focusing on creating innovative, intentional learning experiences that really work.

What Does “Saturday Night Live” Have in Common with Creating Great Learning Experiences?

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

What does Saturday Night Live have in common with creating learning experiences? Surprisingly more than you might think.

For the past four years or so, I’ve entered the NBC Studios lottery to see Saturday Night Live live and in-person. This past April, I received an email out of the blue stating that I had been selected. Needless to say, I was stunned. The show was in just ten days, and I only had 24 hours to respond and decide whether I would accept the tickets. After “careful” deliberation (aka learning that Lizzo was both the host and musical guest), my husband and I decided this was an opportunity we couldn’t miss.

Collaboration (and organized chaos) leads to success

There’s a lot that I could say about the experience of seeing SNL live, but what stood out to me the most was the absolute—albeit organized—chaos of it all.

I was fortunate to be seated on the ground level, which put me especially close to the action. It is truly a live show, so the time in between sketches is very, very busy. What happens behind the scenes to make the magic come to life is a perfect medley of moving parts and people. Love the show or hate it, I will say the atmosphere is completely different in-person than watching it on television from my couch.

I was mesmerized by the stage hands, the makeup artists, cast members, and the techs who were doing things so quickly and efficiently and, in some cases, literally running to get things done. Their collaboration was the kind you see when a team is so synchronized they move as one, helping each other out, and doing so without any hesitation.

I lived for seeing those little moments too: castmates joking with each other before camera rolling, the choreographer giggling off-camera while directing the silliest movements on-camera, and when someone picked up a goat that refused to get out of the way because there just wasn’t time to wait between sketches.

But I promised that this article wouldn’t just be about SNL. This experience was a reminder to me about all of the wonderful things that also happen behind the scenes of creating learning experiences and the way that our team works together to get things done.

The work it takes to create (any) great experience

Similar to what goes on behind the scenes of SNL, there are countless things that go into creating learning experiences that make an impact. Often, it’s the work-behind-the-work that nobody gets to see where the magic actually happens. Let’s look at the four key elements it takes to pull off a great experience—whether it’s an innovative learning program or a live sketch show.

Trust the team

Trust your team to do what’s expected of them. Every role should be clearly defined so everyone knows what is needed from them. The ability to pull something off quickly comes from nobody needing to question who is doing what—everyone knows their role and they stick to their responsibilities. At SNL, solid processes, and people tightly knowing their responsibilities, allow them to produce a show at an incredibly high-level in a ridiculously short amount of time. And everybody’s role matters.

Check your ego at the door

Know your lane, but be flexible and adaptable—or dare I say, improvise—when needed. When you’re working against insane deadlines, new things are going to come up, a new idea may spark, and mistakes are going to happen. When you know what is expected of you, you can focus on your responsibilities while also jumping in when someone needs an extra hand. It’s about knowing your place and knowing whether or not to get involved. That also means putting aside your ego to do what’s necessary just because it needs to get done (and having the humility to step aside when that’s what’s best for the team).

Goal-oriented mindset

Having a shared purpose, goal, or objective is the best way to bring a group together to collaborate. Every single person at SNL wants the same thing and is working toward the same goal. Everyone was committed to what they were doing and you could feel that passion and purpose behind the work. That’s the same secret sauce that makes a great learning experience successfully come together. When you have a goal—a specific behavior change you’re driving toward or a KPI that you’re hoping to achieve—everything you’re creating in that program becomes laser-focused on driving that change forward.

The show must go on

When you’re working with others to pull off something big, there’s really no room for fear of failure. They say perfection is the enemy of success and that couldn’t be more true. Lorne Michaels has been known to say, “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready—it goes on because it’s 11:30.”

You can and should keep refining and improving work incrementally over time, but failing to get it in front of people and give your audience, or learners, something is far more powerful than waiting for the perfect course—or the perfect joke.

Progress over Perfection

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

We’ve all been there: unfairly expecting perfection out of ourselves even when we know better. And it starts young.

Just this week, I was having a conversation with my eight year old daughter whose team had won their softball game 17-2. I asked her if she’d ever thought about pitching before, as the team currently played using a machine pitcher. But without even thinking about it, she simply replied, “No, I’m not good at it—watch,” she proceeded to pick up the ball and try her hand at a new skill: an underhand pitch.

It seemed ludicrous to me that she’d expect to be good at something without ever having learned the skills needed, practiced those skills, or evaluated her progress over time. When I asked how she expected to be instantly good at underhand pitching, she only shrugged.

Whether that be trying something new and thinking you’ve failed simply because you didn’t have immediate success or learning about something once and deciding that once was enough to know all you needed to know about a topic, focusing on a one-and-done approach can stunt growth and discourage new learners. Like so much else in life, learning is a process. And as learning professionals, it’s vital that we recognize the necessity of setting our sights on progress instead of perfection.

Why progress over perfection matters

Regardless of your age or prior knowledge, learning something new can be intimidating. Focusing on progress, however, can help a learner avoid spinning their wheels by becoming too wrapped up in long-term goals or unreachable ideals. With large-scale learning initiatives, it can be daunting and overwhelming to look at the long-term objectives. Imagine you’re at the bottom of a tall staircase. The top of the staircase might seem far away, difficult to reach, insurmountable. However, focusing instead on the stair in front of you makes each step of the way easier to reach, manageable, and possible. And before you know it, that step-by-step incremental progress will bring you to your goal.

As learning professionals, we can help learners focus on progress by breaking up larger initiatives into smaller, achievable benchmarks. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge your learners (or yourself)! By striving for growth and continued improvement or by honing and advancing your current skills, you can get better and better without the impossible pressure of being the best.

At Maestro, we have two core learning principles that help us focus on progress.

Principle 1: Learning exists to create change

An effective learning initiative should not simply deliver knowledge, but it should also deliver results (i.e. change). Ultimately, the goal of a successful learning initiative is for learners to take what they’ve learned and apply that knowledge every day. Implementing their new knowledge into their work or their lives is a continual progress that creates positive change.

But in order to move forward, you need to know where you’re going. When beginning a learning project, it’s important to think critically about what you’re trying to accomplish and consider the steps needed to get there. Implement strategies that drive results, produce tangible achievements, and create change. This cannot be done by focusing on perfection or a one-and-done lesson. Change is created through a focus on progress and continued growth.

Principle 2: Learning is a process, not a one time event

Speaking of, we know that learning is a process. Seldom is someone able to read a book, take a course, or watch a video and then immediately enact a new skill perfectly on their first try. Instead, learning is a cycle—an ongoing process in which learners apply and hone their knowledge over time.

The view of learning as a process is inspired by Kolb’s Model. Kolb divided learning into four distinct phases. First, you learn something new. Second, you think about what you learned and how you might use it in the future. Third, you apply your new knowledge to a situation or a task. And fourth, you reflect on your experience and opportunities for continued learning. If these phases are repeated properly, frequently, and in different situations, you eventually can improve upon your abilities to reach a level of mastery. This is why our learning solutions typically follow a similar model and attempt to tap into all four phases of learning. But the focus isn’t on the potential mastery down the line—the focus (for the learner and the learning professional) is on the process. Mastery is an effect caused by the repeated process of learning, retention, application, and reflection. To be successful in this endeavor, learners must set their sights on continuous learning and not the destination of perfection.

No matter what—we want to be better

Whether it be tackling a global, large-scale learning initiative, teaching your sales reps how to demo a new product, or just picking up a new instrument–learning something new means we want to be better. And a tendency to focus on perfection is just another embodiment of this desire to be and do better. The issue with focusing on perfection though is that it can stop you before you’ve even started and create unnecessary pressure.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t lean into the desire to be better! In fact, capitalizing on the positive inclination to be better can lead to tremendous growth and personal or professional development. This means remembering that learning is not a destination but a process that, when done right, creates continued positive change. So you don’t need to jump to the top of the staircase or become a competitive softball pitcher, you just have to take that first step or throw that first ball.

The Best Places to Find off-the-Shelf eLearning Content

Posted on by Maestro

With so many different learning agencies, available courses, and eLearning marketplaces out there, knowing where to start to find the right fit for your eLearning needs can be complicated and overwhelming. We get it. That’s why our team has gathered a list of the top eight best places to get off-the-shelf eLearning courses complete with a review of key features, benefits, and costs associated with each. So you can find the marketplace and courses that are right for you!

But first things first, let’s break down exactly what off-the-shelf eLearning courses are, the difference between off-the-shelf and custom courses, and when it makes sense to use one or the other.

What are off-the-shelf eLearning courses?

Off-the-shelf eLearning courses are courses that have been pre-designed and can be downloaded and used by learners immediately. Off-the-shelf courses cover various topics and are most frequently used in situations where education for a team is needed with content covering a breadth of common industry or professional topics. This could be general industry knowledge, soft skill development, or compliance information.

Off-the-shelf courses are particularly useful for organizations with large workforces who need to train various teams and/or departments on a number of topics or on content that is not company-specific. For example, a proper handwashing technique off-the-shelf course could teach learners in various industries how to properly wash their hands without the need of any custom or branded content. Off-the-shelf courses are also an important option for smaller businesses who don’t have the budget to create custom eLearning courses for their team but still want to provide quality educational content.

Need ready-to-go courses that look and feel custom? We’ve got you covered!

You can save time and cost with our beautifully designed, off-the-shelf courses—they’re as close to custom as you can get.

Related

How to Find a Balance between eLearning and Performance Support

Off-the-shelf versus custom content

While both options have their benefits, understanding what your learners need out of a course’s content, considering your design needs (and desires!), and identifying your budget and time constraints are all important pieces of the puzzle in determining which course type is right for you. That being said, the primary difference between off-the-shelf courses and custom courses is that off-the-shelf courses are ready to go immediately, but they have not been tailored to your individual business or branding. They’re ideal for those instances where you don’t need something custom—you just need something fast. With an off-the-shelf course, there’s no need to wait on curriculum design, course development, or beta testing—just click, purchase, and upload to your Learning Management System (LMS), and your off-the-shelf course is ready to go.

Custom courses, on the other hand, grant an organization complete control over the content, design, and branding of their course. As such, custom courses are a great option for organizations who have individualized training needs or for those who want a course that utilizes specific branding (terms, customized images, etc.). If your organization has a specific, personalized sales methodology, for example, then you may want to consider working with a performance partner to consult, develop, and build custom courses that are optimized to suit your unique needs.

Maestro can help you create custom, innovative learning experiences that are crafted with you and your learners in mind, but what if you don’t want something custom? Where should you look?

8 of the best off-the-shelf eLearning marketplaces

1. OpenSesame

Cost: $-$$$

With more than 20,000 ready-to-download courses from leading eLearning publishers, OpenSesame is one of the most trusted providers in the market for on-demand learning courses. Intuitive and simple to navigate, OpenSesame makes buying and selling eLearning courses as easy as downloading a song from iTunes.

With OpenSesame, you can preview courses, read reviews, research sellers, buy courses with no subscriptions or long-term commitments, and download and use courses instantly in any LMS. OpenSesame does the heavy lifting, so you can focus on choosing the best courses for your team.

Open Sesame is best for:

  • Flexible licensing—OpenSesame’s flexible licensing allows users to choose between unlimited access to the most popular courses on OpenSesame through an OpenSesame Plus subscription, or customers can choose to purchase only the courses they need
  • LMS integration—Courses can be downloaded and implemented into any LMS
  • Curation support—OpenSesame’s team of knowledgeable eLearning advisors are available to help curate quality content that meets the needs of customers and their learners

2. Maestro

Cost: $$-$$$

Yes, you read that right—Maestro is no one-trick pony! We are dedicated to creating innovative learning experiences that our clients love, so even though we may be best known for strategic, custom learning solutions, we also understand that sometimes off-the-shelf content better meets our client’s needs and desires for time and/or cost efficiency. Ultimately, we’re here to serve you so you can empower your end learners whether that means off-the-shelf content or something tailored just for your team.

So, we created an off-the-shelf course library with topics that range from healthcare compliance to everyday wellbeing with plenty inbetween. And the best part? We’re constantly adding more courses based on your needs (seriously, tell us if you have a topic in mind). Maestro’s off-the-shelf courses combine thoughtful design with the science of how people learn—the same fundamentals we apply to custom learning courses. And even with our off-the-shelf eLearning solutions, we provide the option to translate, brand, and customize if needed.

Maestro is best for:

  • High-quality visual design and innovation—we are always looking for ways to implement the newest learning technologies and research-supported best practices to create innovative, effective solutions that are beautifully designed
  • Simple processes and options for customization—Maestro provides options for translating, branding, and/or customizing so you can tailor courses as much (or as little) as you’d like
  • Fantastic customer service – Talk to real humans (who care) to solve your eLearning needs and help you find solutions that work for you
Check out an example: No-cost Creative Problem Solving

Download an off-the-shelf Maestro course now to see our work in action and help your team develop their problem solving skills.

Get the course→

3. LinkedIn Learning 

Cost: $–$$

Learning, previously Lynda.com, offers individual, government, corporate, and academic subscriptions that provide members with video courses taught by industry experts with the goal of helping anyone learn business. Their library of content includes over 16,000 courses covering business, technology, and creative topics that are available on both mobile and desktop.

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is dedicated to helping its over half a billion members worldwide achieve more in their careers by making connections, discovering new opportunities, and gaining industry insight through professional networking. And with LinkedIn’s global reach, they have access to a wide breadth of industry knowledge and can make a direct impact on the world’s workforce in ways not many other companies can.

LinkedIn Learning is best for:

  • Learner-led continuing education—learners can control when and what they learn
  • Courses in web development, software development, design, and marketing—though these aren’t the only courses provided, these topics are where LinkedIn Learning really shines
  • Pre-built learning paths—take some of the pressure off learners, and let the professionals guide the learning path

4. Udemy

Cost: $-$$

Udemy is a massive open online course provider (MOOC) that boasts over 150,000 courses from 70,000+ instructors in more than 65 languages. Their library of content is curated for a global audience with courses that touch on a broad range of topics including health and fitness, the arts, programming, and business skills. Courses on Udemy can be either paid or free depending entirely on the instructor. Udemy is unique in that its platform is designed to allow instructors to build online courses using their own development tools (i.e., videos, powerpoints, live discussion boards, and more).

Udemy for Business, one of their latest ventures, uses a subscription-based model, which grants subscribers access to a targeted suite of 7,000+ courses. Through Udemy for Business, organizations can create custom learning portals for corporate training as well.

Udemy is best known for: 

  • Industry-leading experts – Udemy’s course instructors include bestselling authors, award-winning professors, and industry experts spanning multiple disciplines
  • Global reach and perspective—with 65+ languages and instructors based all over the world, Udemy certainly has a lens for global business
  • Mobile learning—Udemy offers an app for Apple iOS and Android, and more than 20% of their learners access training via mobile devices

5. Go1 

Cost: $-$$

Go1 hosts a massive curated eLearning library made available for a single subscription price and for use either within a client’s existing LMS or by using Go1’s. Currently, Go1 offers over 100,000 resources and is continuing to invest in growing their library with quality content from industry-leading learning providers.

Go1’s content curation team works with their partners to identify and create unique training requirements that ensure the best recommendations and information are presented to you and your learners. Their current offerings fall into four primary categories: business skills, personal development, safety and compliance, and technology skills.

Go1 is best known for: 

  • Content curation—Not only is Go1’s Content Hub an easy tool to use, but their learning partners also help you curate the right content for your business without sacrificing on quality or quantity
  • Integrations—For those already using an LMS, Go1’s Content Hub is compatible with hundreds of existing systems
  • Quality content—Go1 is selective about their learning partners to ensures content creators uphold the high level of quality that Go1 requires before making courses available to learners

6. BizLibrary

Cost: $-$$$

BizLibrary offers off-the-shelf learning in a variety of content formats ranging from microlearning videos to in-depth, interactive courses and video programs. Their award-winning online training library contains more than 6,000 micro-video lessons, video courses, interactive videos, and eLearning courses covering a wide variety of topic areas. BizLibrary also offers additional support materials to further increase learning retention.

BizLibrary’s learning technology platform is powerful and easy to use, and all of their online training solutions are mobile-friendly, allowing learners unlimited access to training content on any device, anytime and anywhere for true just-in-time learning.

BizLibrary is best for:

  • Video utilization—training delivered through video in both micro- and long-form
  • Accredited content—BizLibrary’s course catalog is award-winning, expansive, and backed by industry professionals
  • Additional resources— support materials such as handouts and quizzes are available to increase knowledge retention on the ROI for training

7. Skillsoft

Cost: $$–$$$

Skillsoft is a trusted industry partner that provides innovative and cloud-based off-the-shelf courses for learning and performance support. Their team works with clients to define strategy, competency mapping, and ROI maximization to optimize effective, well-designed courses and learning solutions. Skillsoft trains more professionals than any other company and is trusted by the world’s leading organizations, including 65% of the Fortune 500.

And just like us, Skillsoft is on a mission to build beautiful technology and content that makes an impact. Their library includes 165,000+ courses, videos, and books and is accessed more than 130 million times every month across 160 countries and 29 languages—all with 100% cloud access anytime and anywhere.

Skillsoft is best for:

  • Breadth of content—Skillsoft has over 7,000 courses and 65,000 videos in their cloud-based library
  • Diverse delivery options—Users can choose from a host of content delivery options from interactive courses, enlightening videos, practical simulations, and more
  • Skills-based learning solutions—Skillsoft’s specialty lies in skills-based training like business skills and leadership, IT skills and certification, and digital skills and compliance

8. Coursera

Cost: $$-$$$

Coursera was originally founded by two Stanford University professors whose aim was to make top university-style courses accessible to a global, online audience. Coursera partners with more than 200 leading universities and companies including the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale, University of Michigan, Google, and IBM to create a range of content from on-demand lectures to degree programs and more. In 2021, Coursera was awarded a B corp certification for their continued commitment to reducing barriers to world-class education for all learners, and this commitment is reflected in their desktop- and mobile-friendly content available in a variety of languages.

Content on Coursera covers a wide range of topics including leadership, marketing, engineering, data science, finance, and sales. Additionally, Coursera offers an enterprise product—Coursera for Business—that enables organizations to provide their learners access to over 5,000 courses from the world’s top universities. These courses can be curated to align with your business needs to provide learners with specific skills training, professional certifications, and other world-class education content.

Coursera is best for:

  • Reputable content—Coursera partners with the industry’s leading educators and business professionals to provide trustworthy, high quality content
  • Professional certificates offered through accredited programs—Learners can earn certifications in a number of fields ranging from social media to bookkeeping and more
  • Specializations—Coursera offers various multi-week programs that focus on developing specific and/or highly-specialized skills

Get going (and get growing) today!

While there is almost an unlimited number of off-the-shelf course providers on the market today, finding the one that best fits your learners’ exact needs can be tricky. When in doubt, we suggest building out a list of all the needs and goals you’re looking to meet. From there, review this list of off-the-shelf marketplaces, select the top three to five providers that seem to meet those needs, and then set up free trials of their courses and content.

After all, there is no better way to see if something fits than trying it on for size!

The Simplest Way to Avoid the Research Fail of the Yellow Walkman

Posted on by katie@maestrolearning.com

The key to learner discovery lies in the failed focus group for a 1980s and 90s staple: the Sony Walkman—an innovative handheld music player. Legend has it that participants rallied around Sony’s new design concept for its classic black model: a sporty yellow Walkman. Participants loved the color! It complemented their (likely neon) outfits! They loved having another choice! It looked sporty!

The focus group had spoken.

Or had they?

As participants walked out the door, they could pick a Walkman—black or yellow.

They all chose black.

Rewind. How’d that happen?

There were likely plenty of psychological phenomena in play, but it comes down to participants not having skin in the game.

Do you like the yellow Walkman? Sure.
What do you like about the yellow Walkman? Cue participants rattling off positives they truly believed.
Would you buy the yellow Walkman? Yes.

These questions didn’t mean anything to the participants. There was no consequence to liking (or not liking) or wanting (or not wanting) the new model. Why not like the new model?

But once participants had to put their choices where their mouths were, their real preferences emerged.

How to conduct a Learning Environment Analysis

In this guide, you’ll find an in-depth overview of a Learning Environment Analysis, a powerful framework for accurately understanding adult learners’ previous knowledge, current challenges, and needs so that you can design the right learning solution. Plus, get worksheets and templates for each stage of the process.

Download the guide→

From product design to learning design

The product-design principle learned from that accidental case study should inform your field research.

If you ask a group if or how much they like certain options, such as on a scale of one to five, they’re likely to rate them all around three or four. But if you ask them to rank options, you’re going to get a clearer picture of their actual preferences.

This simple tweak gives the interviewees skin in the game. It pushes learners to truly consider their preferences instead of arbitrarily scoring options independent of one another.

Whether you’re gauging preferences and needs of what content someone is learning or how content is being delivered, having them rank options forces them to make a decision. Forcing rankings not only eliminates the false data invited by the wrong types of questions, but it also pushes the learner to wrestle with the pros and cons of the options. This allows us as researchers to probe beyond WHAT they think to WHY they think it.

Are You Skipping the Validation Step? Why Piloting Your Learning Matters

Posted on by katie@maestrolearning.com

We need to talk about the validation step. It’s incredibly valuable to the solutioning process, yet it’s one of the most frequently skipped steps in learning design.

As a learning strategist, I see it all the time—despite the best of intentions, tight budgets and even tighter timelines squeeze the validation step out of the solutioning process. When validation is undervalued, it chips away at the end result. Small oversights that could’ve been adjusted during validation add up over time and can negatively impact anything from learner performance to L&D’s budget. It’s a small aspect of the learning design process, but it can have a big impact.

Here’s how I think about the validation step, why it matters, and a few best practices to consider when validating learning solutions.

What is the validation step and why is it important?

In learning design, validation is the step between wrapping up production and delivering the solution to the learner audience. As the name implies, this step is all about validating that the solution works for our intended audience and we are solving our initial problem statement. It could also be called the pilot or test phase.

No matter what you call it, the idea is to test and learn before the solution is out in the world, when it becomes much more difficult, costly, and time-consuming to make adjustments. If your learning solution misses the mark after delivery, those are significant amounts of time, money, and resources you can’t get back—and because the learning problem still isn’t solved, you’re likely going to have to invest even more.

At Maestro, we follow a Double Diamond framework for learning design that separates the problem-finding process from problem solving. In the problem-finding stage, we focus on learner research and discovering as much information as possible about the audience and the problems they face. A lot goes into the discovery phase and by the end of it, we have a clear, well-defined understanding of the learner, the problem at hand, and the change we want to create.

How to conduct a learning environment analysis (LEA)

In this guide, you’ll find an in-depth overview of an LEA, a powerful framework for accurately diagnosing and defining learners’ problems, constraints, and needs to prescribe the right learning solution. Plus, get worksheets and templates for each stage of the process.

Download your copy→

We use these findings to inform the problem-solving stage, which involves developing and testing a solution (that’s the validation step!) and then delivering it and evaluating effectiveness. Despite all of the research we do to understand the learner and develop the best possible solution, we still believe in piloting what we’ve created to ensure the experience is fine-tuned to perfection and will resonate with learners to achieve the intended outcomes.

Think of it this way: once your learning solution is out there, you can’t take it back. Take the time to test it out with a small group of learners instead of putting the perceptions of your entire learner audience at stake.

What you learn during validation

If you’ve done your homework through learner research, think of validation as going back to check your work. There likely won’t be any huge surprises during validation. Piloting will help uncover the small details you might not expect, allowing you to tweak and make adjustments before delivery. Validation ensures the learning solution—and the time and money spent on it—is truly going to result in the behavior change you designed it for.

What might you learn during validation? Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re developing a learning experience for an audience of surgeons and nurses. During validation, you might pilot the course to a sample group of four to six learners from the target audience. Several of them tell you that the imagery you’ve used during scenarios isn’t realistic—for example, why aren’t the nurses wearing gloves? It’s a small detail that could be easily overlooked by a SME who is more focused on the core content. But to learners, it’s distracting and erodes credibility. Taking their feedback into account, you update the imagery, continue on to have a great launch, and achieve strong results that help you prove value to stakeholders.

Learning validation best practices

Validation is an important step, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether it’s a survey, a focus group, or observing a test pilot, here are a few best practices for validating learning solutions.

Pinpoint your target audience

Make sure those participating in validation truly represent your target audience. Watch out for bias in your selection pool—top performers are often the first to raise their hands as volunteers, but they may not represent the entire learner audience.

This process is meant to uncover small details that those outside of the learner profile may overlook. For example, does the language used ring true? Does the structure of the program fit with their day-to-day lives? These insights should come from a representative sample of your exact audience—not a proxy, like a manager or L&D leader.

Keep it small

Less is more. You don’t need a large sample size to get valuable insights and feedback on the experience. A focus group of five to ten people, depending on the nature of the content, roles, and what you want to learn, is enough to get representative feedback without too much variance.

You don’t need to survey a large group of learners during validation—what’s more important is to ensure you’re reaching representative groups for all of your target audiences. For example, if your solution is distributed to different geographical locations, validate with a small sample in each market.

Think forward

A little planning goes a long way. Before piloting, think about what you want to learn. Plan your questions in advance to avoid bias or leading questions. It’s also important to consider your learning objectives and KPIs—you’ll want to compare the insights that come out of validation against your objectives so you can optimize accordingly.

After validation, compile your notes and extract key themes. What comes up again and again? Evaluate feedback themes and think about how to create something actionable out of them. What needs to change? Insights are just insights until you have actionable optimization.

Validation leads to more effective learning experiences

Bottom line: don’t skip the validation step! Taking the extra time to test and get feedback on your learning solution will save you time and money in the long run, all while ensuring you’re delivering a solution that will drive real behavior change for learners.

Understand Your Learners Better: How to Conduct a Learning Environment Analysis

Posted on by katie@maestrolearning.com

At Maestro, we believe that learning is one of the most powerful tools for creating change. Learning, when done right, equips learners with the skills they need to grow in their careers and to impact the business.

But we’ve found that too many programs are focused more on the content and less on the learners who will enact that change. Maestro’s view has always been that these two areas deserve equal focus. That’s why we created our learning environment analysis, or LEA for short, framework.

What is a learning environment analysis (LEA)?

An LEA is a framework for better getting to know your learners and the world they live in, empowering you to create better, more learner-centric experiences. The specific set of tools that you’ll use in an LEA will allow you to, above all else, eliminate assumptions from your work.

When used at the beginning of a project, an LEA helps to better define problems, constraints, and the needs of learners before forging ahead on an assumptive solution that might not be the best option for the challenge at hand. We believe learners deserve intentionally designed experiences that help them build skills, not just pass a knowledge check.

So if you’re ready to take your understanding of your learners to the next level and change the way you approach your most important learning projects, here are a few simple first steps to get started. Interested in learning the entire LEA process, from start to finish? Download our comprehensive guide, How to Conduct a Learning Environment Analysis.

How to conduct a learning environment analysis (LEA)

In this guide, you’ll find an in-depth overview of an LEA, a powerful framework for accurately diagnosing and defining learners’ problems, constraints, and needs to prescribe the right learning solution. Plus, get worksheets and templates for each stage of the process.

Download your copy→

How to conduct a learning environment analysis

Which discovery tools will help you gain a robust understanding of your learners? An LEA provides a framework for approaching any new learning challenge, including the specific tools to use and the order in which we recommend you sequence them to get the best results.

The LEA process is fairly thorough, and we share all of the details in our guide, but here’s a quick overview of each of the steps in the LEA process:

1. Review pre-existing materials

Starting with a review of pre-existing materials lays the groundwork for all of the discovery activities to follow. Take stock by evaluating current content, missing content, and available data. The goal here is twofold: you’re looking to build empathy with the learner by putting yourself in their shoes and experiencing the learning for yourself. You’ll want to make note of both your struggles and lightbulb moments.

Second, you’re looking to build familiarity with the subject matter so you can dissect and reassemble it in a way that lends itself to a sound instructional design approach—not just the will of the subject-matter expert.

2. Host a working session

The primary purpose of a working session is to generate alignment among project stakeholders. Everyone who has a say in the project’s strategy, execution, and launch needs to be included in this session.

Prepare for the working session by reviewing objectives, developing intentional activities, and preparing an agenda. Afterwards, summarize your working session takeaways and share them with the stakeholder team for final review and alignment.

3. Conduct field observations

Field observations might be the highest impact tool in the LEA. There’s a richness of information and context that come with entering the learner’s environment and simply observing them in their day-to-day responsibilities. It simultaneously builds empathy and erases assumptions. By conducting field observations, we get a firsthand picture of what our learners’ lives look like and when they find time for learning.

Before field observations, prepare by conducting research on your interviewees and preparing key questions to ask throughout the day. During the observation, take thorough notes and, if possible, take photos of what you see to bring back to your team.

4. Conduct learner interviews

The final phase of discovery is designed to gather as much information as possible about the behaviors and attitudes of the learner audience. By interviewing 7–10 learners, you’re gathering a cross section of insights from learners across the performance spectrum so you can begin to identify the similarities and differences, if any, of those who perform at different levels.

Remember, the focus of this phase is to understand the challenge—not to begin discussing and brainstorming potential solutions with your interviewees. Before each interview, we highly recommend asking for permission to record the conversation. It frees you from having to take notes and listen at the same time, which allows you to listen more carefully and ask follow-up questions that lead to rich insights.

5. Analyze findings

The final step of the ‘problem finding’ phase is to analyze our findings, which will ultimately inform the problem-solving phase of developing and designing a solution. At this point, our mindset shifts from divergent thinking to convergent thinking, where we are analyzing the data gathered to identify patterns, exceptions, and insights. Ultimately, we want to be able to generate a new problem statement and related requirements, both of which will be used once we begin to execute later on.

By the end of this phase, we need to be able to tell a story, and not just any story—an accurate story that represents the world as it actually is and not as we want it to be. It entails reviewing your objectives and notes and reconciling your findings in order to develop and challenge the problem statement. We cover the steps of this process in detail in our LEA guide (plus, get a findings report template).

Problem finding before problem solving

By committing to conducting a learning environment analysis, you’re ensuring you’ll discover as much information as possible about learners, the problem they face, and the many factors at play.

The LEA also works to define that information in the form of a new problem statement that helps to fuel better design and problem solving later in the process, ultimately leading to more effective learning that creates change. Are you ready to conduct a learning environment analysis in your own organization?

How Learner Discovery Can Completely Change the Direction of a Project

Posted on by katie@maestrolearning.com

Ever feel tempted to skip learner discovery during the design process? We get it. You feel you have a good idea of the problem you’re solving and you’re fired up with ideas on how to get there.

But sometimes the directive of a project doesn’t match up with the actual needs and wants of learners, and that misalignment can impact the success of the project. Through learner research, ​more time is spent identifying the problem, and then using that to inform the directive. The findings inform the design phase, leading to the best possible solution: a learning experience that drives behavior change.

We recently wrapped up an exciting project with a client and the learner research phase changed the direction of the project for the better. Here’s some inspiration for how to conduct the learner research portion of discovery and why it’s so impactful on the overall effectiveness of a project.

Validating initial assumptions

Johnny’s Markets, a chain of 60+ family-owned Shell gas station convenience stores, cares deeply about creating great experiences for both customers and team members. When you step into a Johnny’s, you can count on friendly service and sparkling clean stores—and it takes a confident, capable staff to pull that off. Johnny’s came to us to create a training program for their managers and shared their ideas on the topics we should cover.

Here’s where we’ve learned to pump the brakes and conduct thorough learner discovery before starting to design a solution. Client direction is a good start, but the next step is to validate assumptions about learners’ needs. That means answering a few important questions. For example, why do managers need to be trained? What challenges are they facing right now? Do the proposed content topics address those challenges?

We knew we could answer those questions and validate our initial thinking by conducting a learning environment analysis, a framework that uses discovery and field research tools to diagnose learner challenges. Here’s how we did it for Johnny’s Markets.

Conducting learner discovery and field research

Our team spent a month engaged in the learner discovery phase. For this project, we visited a Johnny’s store to observe team members in their work environment. We also spent three days conducting field interviews with area managers, store managers, and frontline employees.

As part of the observation phase, we shadowed a store manager to learn how they do their job and what a day-in-the-life is really like. During this step, we always take thorough notes and plenty of photos to refer back to during the design process. We learned a lot here: managers were often juggling managerial responsibilities with frontline, customer-facing tasks. We also observed their learning environment—in this case, the back office—to understand how they access learning and how it fits into their environment.

After having spent a day immersed in a Johnny’s Market store, we started to grasp their cultural lingo and daily routines, all of which helped us refine our questions and use our time more efficiently in the field interviews stage. We then engaged 10–12 team members in one-on-one interviews to ask a series of questions around management mindset, training content, and store context.

Here are a few examples of the questions we asked store managers:

  • What does a successful manager at Johnny’s Markets look like?
  • Can you measure manager success? If so, what are the outcomes?
  • Tell me about a manager’s day-to-day life. What makes it difficult to take a training?
  • If you were designing a manager training program, what topics do you think would be important to cover? Why those topics?

Learner research findings

Unsurprisingly, spending time with the learner audience gave our team a deep appreciation for what Johnny’s team members do every day. If a picture is worth a thousand words, first-hand experience is worth a million. We saw for ourselves the spontaneity of the job and the up-and-down nature of their work. It’s often a thankless job, especially during a pandemic.

Building empathy with learners is a critical tool for creating effective learning. You must meet learners where they are and understand their current knowledge, preferences, constraints, and motivations in order to create experiences that resonate.

Take a look at a few key themes and findings from the learner discovery phase:

  • Team members are busy and their schedules are unpredictable. They need a training they can easily pick up and put back down.
  • Johnny’s team members agree on the traits of a good manager. A good manager is in the trenches, flexible but fair, and can manage conflict.
  • Everyone appreciates the culture at Johnny’s. Team members truly love working there and company values aren’t just words, they’re lived.

How learner research impacted the direction of the project

Our findings allowed us to recommend training topics that met learners’ actual needs, versus assumed needs. Together with our partners at Johnny’s, we reworked the initially-proposed topics and recommended a structure for the training program that would fit their schedules and meet their learning needs.

The project is in development now—here’s the direction we’re taking based on our findings during learner discovery.

How to conduct a learning environment analysis (LEA)

In this guide, you’ll find an in-depth overview of an LEA, a powerful framework for accurately diagnosing and defining learners’ problems, constraints, and needs to prescribe the right learning solution. Plus, get worksheets and templates for each stage of the process.

Download your copy→

Learning topics that resonate

We synthesized our findings to identify five key training topics, along with an introduction, that reflected learners’ challenges. These topics showed learners they were listened to and that Johnny’s is invested in their growth and development.

Here are the module topics we landed on:

  • Introduction
  • Leading at Johnny’s
  • Building relationships
  • Communicating with clarity
  • Supporting your team
  • Navigating difficult conversations

These modules teach learners transferable, lifelong skills that will serve them anywhere they go. It’s something learners asked for during the discovery phase and helps create immediate learner buy-in so they understand what’s in it for them.

A learning structure focused on behavior change

For this training program, we proposed a structure that takes learners through key phases of the learning process. Covering one topic per week for 4-6 weeks, each module will contain a 5-minute, high-production learning video to introduce the concept (discovery), 1-2 takeaway actions to put learning into practice (application), and an opportunity to debrief with a colleague or leader (reflection).

This structure helps take the guesswork out of learning outcomes and drives behavior change. Instead of simply telling managers what to do and hoping it sticks, this structure guides learners through practicing what they’ve learned. And it’s what the learners asked for: we learned through discovery that this audience appreciates specific examples of how to put a behavior or idea into action.

A focus on culture

Culture is core to Johnny’s and what differentiates it from other convenience stores. We viewed this training as another opportunity to reinforce that culture and create further distance between Johnny’s and the rest of the pack.

Not only that, but Johnny’s culture and values are often a large part of the “why” behind many of the traits of a good manager. We’re infusing culture throughout the training and taking every opportunity to tie the learning back to Johnny’s core values.

Don’t skip learner research

Let’s take a step back and imagine the direction of this project without field research. We would’ve checked a box to deliver content, but it likely wouldn’t have changed behavior. Even worse, we could’ve imposed learning on the audience that caused real damage, resulting in the learners losing trust and feeling misunderstood.

Instead, we’re on our way to creating a learning experience that is almost entirely learner-driven: it reflects their values and their needs, and it even fits their schedules. Bottom line? Don’t skip the learner discovery stage—it can transform a project’s direction and help deliver stronger learning.