Blog FPO

Designing impactful instructor-led learning experiences with the millennial in mind

Photo Credit: Pexels.com

Before becoming an instructional designer, I spent 22 years in the classroom teaching the millennial learner: those learners now between ages 22 and 37 and who are still entering or who are well-entrenched in the workforce. Within the next 10 years, this demographic will make up the majority of the global workforce.

Consequently, when it comes to offering face-to-face learning experiences, such as a day-long interactive workshop or a 75-minute breakout session at a conference, associations must carefully consider the millennial learner’s needs and expectations if they want them to have a worthwhile, enjoyable experience. Fortunately, by understanding these learning needs and employing strategies, based on best practice, to address those needs, the association will more than likely meet the learning needs of the larger association audience as well.  

One surprising thing that I noticed when working with millennial learners in the classroom, at both the high school and college level, is that despite all their tech savviness, they still prefer the in-person, social learning experience. They craved and even requested authentic, social interaction with me and with their fellow learners. With that said, despite all the online learning options available, face-to-face, social learning can still be a relevant way for associations to offer a rewarding experience. This learning experience can address gaps in skill, knowledge and attitude while providing an effective and efficient ways for participants to not only conveniently learn necessary skills and knowledge to transfer to their respective jobs but also have the delightful, and perhaps credential worthy, learning experience.

For this to happen, workshops and other types of instructor-led sessions must be improved, and they must work. Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your next instructor-led learning experience:

  1. Content is important, but the learner comes first: After ensuring that the learners are recruited appropriately for the session, make sure learner-centered objectives are stated clearly and well-understood by participants. The session design should provide opportunities where the facilitator states clearly and often the objectives. Additionally, after considering any ways that he or she can personalize the content for the current challenges of the learners, the facilitator should tell participants: “Here’s what you’ll be learning; here’s why you’ll be learning it; and here’s what you will do show me that you learned it.”

Also, learners should have opportunities to articulate objectives in their own terms. They, too, should clearly be able to tell the facilitator and one another “Here’s what I’m going to learn; here’s why I’m going to learn it; and this is what I’m going to do to show that I learned it.” The instructor-led session expectations and participant expectations must match up. If they don’t match up, the experience will not only be lack-luster and disappointing from both perspectives but also a waste of time, resources and money.

  1. Make learners co-creators of material: Today’s learners want concrete skill enhancement. This enhancement could help give them the competitive edge for career advancement or perhaps even help them remain relevant in the ever-changing workplace. But it is very difficult to learn a skill by just listening to a facilitator talking about a subject. Participants must become invested in the session’s material. This is best accomplished through active, learner-centered strategies and activities that engage the learner and has them doing and not just sitting. There should be varied activities that offer participants opportunities to display work, hold conversations, participate in group work and present. In the end, what the participants can say and do is more important than what the facilitator can say and do.
     
  2. Make material manageable: Bite-sized portions of content will work best with today’s learners. Actually, chunking material is just solid, instructional design best practice for any type of learner. Give a little information and then have participants engage in the material. Give them a little more and then have them engage. It will be quite counter-productive to have learners sitting and listening for more than 10 minutes without any type of interaction with the facilitator or with other participants. If millennial learners get overloaded with information with no engagement, they will quickly disengage from the content.
     
  3. Provide learners an opportunity to leave the session with concrete evidence of learning and post-session support for knowledge transfer: Today’s learners want to leave the session with something in hand that demonstrates skill acquisition. Give them the opportunity to leave the session with maybe a physical project that they created during a workshop that they can utilize in the workplace. Possibly, they may want a certificate for their portfolio or perhaps a certification logo to add to their LinkedIn profile or perchance a badge to put in their digital backpack. Moreover, credentialing, even though not right for all associations, may be a consideration as part of the larger learning portfolio for the association. 

Additionally, to optimize the knowledge transfer process post-session, provide the learners some avenues of support. Perhaps your association could set up a Slack station for attendees, so they can continue to network with each other and experts in the field. If feasible, you could set up an online post-session refresher. There are many support options; choose one that works best for your associations and your members.

Finally, keep in mind, even though there is a plethora of online learning opportunities available, learners choose to be in a learning environment, such as a workshop, where authentic, face-to-face social interactions take place. Offer what they expect, involve them wholly without overwhelming them, provide them evidence of skill acquisition and offer the necessary support that can give them what they need to reach their career goals and be successful in today’s workplace.

From Gadgets to Growth:The Influence of Technology Innovation on Social Transformation

The decision to mandate antiracism or diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) training should be made carefully. While antiracism training can be valuable and effective when implemented thoughtfully, it is most effective when participants are engaged, willing, and open to the learning process. Mandating it for individuals who are not receptive may lead to a superficial compliance without genuine understanding or behavior change. It can also derail the experience for those who are receptive and came to learn. Models of innovation primarily used in business, marketing, and technology, may provide some insight.

Read More >

Equitable Practices to Consider before Establishing Indigenous Land Acknowledgements

One of the main goals in doing an indigenous land acknowledgement is to respect and honor Indigenous People and their Tribal Nations and acknowledge the indigenous traditional lands where we do our work. However, one begs the question – is this enough; is it performative?

Read More >

Creating Community Agreements

Community agreements are guidelines or norms created by a group to establish a mutual understanding. They can be used to ensure that a group’s behavior aligns with its values, they may be referred to when conflicts arise, and help set the tone and focus for your time together. Here's how the Event Garde team addressed this recently:

Read More >

After Action Review: A Critical Component to Event Planning

When we talk about successful event planning, the emphasis is quite often on the word “planning” and all the tools and techniques we employ to ensure a successful event. But what about after the event? Let’s take a look at a few ways we can use an After Action Review (AAR) to help wrap up an event planning cycle and guide us in future events.

Read More >

5 Facilitated Conversations You Can’t Afford to Put Off in 2023

As Aaron returned to a regular work schedule this week, it occurred to him that now’s the time to both reflect on our current level of facilitation knowledge and confidence, as well as take stock in those important conversations we need to have before we get too far into the minutia of the day-to-day meetings and tasks that are almost inevitably creeping into our calendars. Here are the five must-have conversations.

Read More >

Shaking Up Your Volunteer Strategy

The handwriting has been on the wall – associations have consistently failed to fully resource their volunteer systems.  We have in the past 2 years innovated our education and digital strategies, our decision-making models and our workplaces. To a certain degree, we innovated our member engagement strategy as well – and left the volunteer strategy to age another year.  Here's a new volunteer management model for 2023 and what it looks like.

Read More >