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Learning Design master class: report by our colleague

On Monday, November 12, our colleague Heike participated in the Learning Design Masterclass by American educationalist Julie Dirksen. In this blog, she shares her experience with you.

When it comes to learning and development in organizations, a gap analysis is often based on the knowledge and skills employees need to perform their work. Unfortunately, habitual, motivational and environmental aspects required for these activities too often go unnoticed when setting up a (learning) intervention in practice, while it is precisely these aspects that can bring about major change. Indeed, some changes are almost impossible without these aspects.

During the master class, Julie Dirksen took us through the different types of gaps that should be addressed during a gap analysis:

  • Information gap
  • Procedure gap
  • Skill gap
  • Habit gap
  • Motivation gap
  • Environment gap

Julie explained, using cognitive processes underlying the more complex gaps such as habit, motivation and environment, why these gaps are so difficult to bridge and gave us tools to address them. The following are three examples.

Thus, unlearning or changing a habit is not easy. Replacing the habit (smoking, for example) with a "counter habit" (chewing gum instead of smoking) can help.

In a motivation gap, the employee has enough knowledge and ability to do certain work, but does not do it. Depending on the type of motivation, it may help if a role model leads by example.

An environment gap is beyond the employee's control. Environment gaps are often wrongly overlooked and labeled as a lack of knowledge. For example, how likely is it that employees will separate waste if the separate waste collection is further away than the residual waste bin? Explaining why separating waste is important in this case is likely to help less than making separate waste collection more accessible.

Want to learn more about the different types of gaps? Julie Dirksen has written a book about this: http://usablelearning.com/the-book/

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