Howdy folks!
I recently completed the Stanford Seed Spark program, an immersive 5-month online entrepreneurship program. Our cohort included 100+ startups from 6 countries in South-Asia. This opportunity to plug into the knowledge of a network of peers and mentors is helping us grow SmartEES Club, our B2C learning platform.
Coming from an ed-tech startup, my interest in this program was multifold. It is a blended learning program that checks all the right boxes.
Every blended learning program includes a mix of these building blocks:
The most important and impactful facet of the experience was the opportunity to engage with my peers in facilitated sessions and ad-hoc. I had many more aha! moments during our peer sessions than during all other aspects of the program. Hearing about the mistakes, experiences and wins of others helped me re-evaluate our own strategies, start new experiments and avoid likely pitfalls. The second best thing was the 1-1 time with my mentor. Discussing our specific issues deeply with an expert gave me new insights and perspectives to work with. Even in an AI-driven era, human interaction and community support wins—hands down.
How exactly does a community help a learner?
The world’s best teachers are unable to get the majority of learners who sign up to their online courses to complete. On average, 95% of people drop out from self-paced learning based Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The ‘I’m just curious’ type make up some percentage of dropouts. But among the ‘interested but unable to complete’ group, the main reasons for dropping out are:
lack of motivation
low accountability; and
limited interaction with other people.
The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory states that learning is a social activity, not something a learner does in isolation. He showed how opportunities to interact with others on a similar journey help learners learn more than they would themselves. He believed communities help learners “make meaning” while learning.
At Smartees Club, we take every opportunity to reiterate the power of a supportive community of peers. It is a game-changer that accelerates learning and has a much greater impact. We have strong evidence from our own programs—there’s no room for doubt about this.
Community and peer learning are at the core of SmartEES Club too. They help our members stay motivated and complete their programs, making each program more impactful.
Kaizen in Learning
We are committed to making learning exciting for adult learners. Yes, we practice kaizen to create awesome learning experiences. Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuously improving all aspects of one’s life—personal, social and work. It emerged from the manufacturing industries in Japan and has now become a global phenomenon.
But wait, I have another Japanese concept for you… a Gemba Walk. Yet another concept borrowed from the Japanese manufacturing sector, especially Toyota. Leaders are urged to go to the factory floor or worksite to observe operations first-hand, engage with employees and gain genuine insights at the real place, aka gemba.
And now you may be wondering… what does that have to do with learning?
Well, we integrated this factory-born concept into our course on Ways to Build Great Products for undergraduate design students at the Shrishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Read more about our experiment here. It turned out to be yet another case-study for peer-powered learning.
Crafting Effective Learning Programs for Employees and Customers
How does one create an engaging and effective learning program? Enter Instructional Designers (IDs). They’re the experts who blend education know-how with technology to create lessons that stick.
Businesses, educators, and anyone with a message can benefit by working with IDs. Whether you’re starting a training program for employees, enhancing customer education or teaching complex topics, IDs help make learning clear and interesting.
SmartEES Club is now accepting applications to the 5th cohort of our Instructional Design Course. Learn Storyline 360 and start building awesome e-learning modules. This course is perfect for teachers and newcomers alike—no prior teaching experience needed. Join us and start creating effective learning materials today!
Bite-sized wisdom: Microlearning via social media
Denise Fenzi is my first dog-training guru and I met her on Instagram. I’ve not signed up for any of her courses. But, for years I’ve read Denise’s posts and joined her Instagram live sessions or watched recordings. I discussed with her via comments and direct messages, and engaged with her peers, students and fans in the live sessions and by reading and commenting on each other’s comments. Instagram does a decent job as a Learning Management System (LMS) too, wouldn't you say?
Microlearning is all the rage lately. When everyone is starved for time, who objects to just-enough and just-in-time learning?! Social media lends itself surprisingly well to microlearning. It forces content creators to write clear copy and present their ideas in short, concise videos (reels, shorts, etc.). This is great for beginners in all fields.
It is easy to get bogged down in a mire of misinformation and half-truths on social media. But, with some effort, we can uncover many hidden gems—creators who tirelessly share their expertise and prolifically raise awareness around issues they care about.
ಮನಸು ಬೆಳೆಯಲಿ ಭುಜಿಸಿ ನೂರು ನೂರನುಭವವ |
ಹೊನಲು ನೂರೀ ಬಾಳ ಕಡಲನುಬ್ಬಿಸಲಿ ||
“May our minds flourish by feeding on the myriad experiences of a hundred others. May our lives be enriched just as the ocean swells by embracing a hundred streams.”
A verse from Manku Timmana Kagga by D. V. Gundappa, Kannada poet, writer and philosopher.
Auf wiedersehen.
-Madhavi Nadig
Empowering humans by day, moonlighting as a dog-trainer