How can we apply accelerated learning in the digital classroom? Here’s our experience.
Place your pen on a piece of paper and draw a line about 3 centimetres long diagonally to the right, towards you. Then, keeping your pen where it is draw another line about 3 centimetres long diagonally to the left towards you. Keeping your pen on the paper repeat these actions a few times more until you end up with something like this:
Ta-da! You’ve created what’s called a zigzag.
The reason we have asked you to draw a zigzag is so you know this is how you run while being chased by a crocodile or alligator. It will save your life (they have a hard time changing directions while sprinting).
Ok, we appreciate we’re not being chased by crocodiles on a regular basis (unless you’re Captain Hook), but we expect you will remember this lesson if you did encounter one. But why? The title of this blog will no doubt give it away; it’s because we have applied Accelerated Learning principles. Not only that, but we’ve applied them remotely.
Watch this two-minute video to show you what the Accelerated Learning principles are:
A lot of us were forced to go digital and it became a challenge to ensure the effectiveness of Accelerated Learning. All at a time when working remotely removed our opportunity to learn by osmosis, so learning remotely became more important.
No pressure then!
We’ve reflected on the last 18 months where we have been training in our digital classroom and thought we would share some of the things we have learned when applying the Accelerated Learning principles in a virtual environment.
Some of these ideas are tried and tested, some continue to be developed;
| Accelerated Learning Principle | How it could be applied |
|---|---|
| 1. Learning involves the whole mind and body | More frequent breaks and using different tools to engage delegates, such as quick-fire e-learning and mobile phone voting poles through Mentimeter. |
| 2. Learning is creation, not consumption | Using virtual ‘whiteboards’ for delegates to create individually or collectively and instructions to create for themselves; like we did with the zig-zag. |
| 3. Collaboration aids learning – good learning has a social base. Competition between learners can slow learning | Setting up tasks or activities using virtual break-out rooms, for smaller team collaboration. |
| 4. Learning takes place on many levels simultaneously | Bringing in practical elements to virtual workbooks to enable delegate interactivity, such as downloadable activities (or getting them to draw things out, but maybe not zig-zags). See if delegates can move their laptops to a different area of their house, or room, during different subjects to shift the learning context/perspective. |
| 5. Learning comes from doing the work itself. People learn better with context | Give delegates time off between training and reflection to allow for them to put into practice what they have learned. |
| 6. Positive emotions greatly improve learning | As the trainer; give direct, positive feedback and encouragement. Virtual break-out rooms are good for this and when the trainer and visit them and get involved in discussions. Also, it’s good to add humour to the training; it doesn’t have to be about crocodiles! |
| 7. Images are much easier to retain than verbal/written information | If you don’t already; try using images as part of your training. Videos work well for this too, as you’ve hopefully experienced here. |
So, there you have it. We hope you find these Accelerated Learning (remotely!) ideas useful and if you think of any more, or if you would like to discuss them further; we would love to hear from you. And take care near waters 🐊.
From the Vista Learning team.
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