Learning Styles and People
People have dynamic and fluid minds. Their past experiences shape the way their mind is and their learning habits. These habits are displayed is varying degrees depending on the learning environment they are exposed to and the objectives of their learning. The combination of these learning habits and learning environments form the key factors that would define appropriate learning styles for these people.
Usually learning styles can be broadly categorized as Just In time, experiential learning like peeling the orange and getting to the core, adaptive learning and constructive learning.
Each style can use a multitude of learning mechanisms that would best suit the learning environment. Some popular learning mechanisms are e-learning, ILT, online synchronized learning, Hands-on, virtual labs and classrooms, podcasts, videos, simulation libraries, helpdesks, tagging informal learning etc.
For each of the learning solutions these learning styles can be appropriately designed based on the discovery we do. The outcome of this discovery would not only include business process related analysis but also about how people learn but also a brief peek into their broad level experiences.
Very often evaluation is also a function of experience. This means that our evaluation mechanisms also need to be tailored the same way we would tailor the learning mechanisms. While learning mechanisms are more relevant to enterprise learning and knowledge transfer, the evaluation mechanism is relevant to the learning perspective of change management.
For knowledge transfer, the business process map, knowledge gap map and technology map are actually 3 faces of the same cube -the common element being the business axis. I think that there would be a point at which the other 3 curves would intersect and may be that would be a point where the best suite of learning mechanisms are deployed in the optimal environment. May be such a combo would also be naturally stable.
Now the point is how do I locate where and when these 3 curves would intersect. It’s easy to find the instances where 2 curves would intersect ….but there must be a rule that tells me how to locate the intersection point. May be there could be some more parameters that I need to look at, in order to get me to rule itself.
This view is from Tanvi Kelkar , Infosys' Learning Services
