People use podcasts to gain information and knowledge, about a huge variety of things, in their downtime. Organisations and institutions have been slow to leverage this powerful source of potential to date, but things are changing fast. John talks to Adam Lacey, co-founder of Assemble You, an 'audio-first' provider of learning content. How different are learning podcasts from ordinary podcasts? And how easily – or otherwise – does audio learning sits alongside other forms of digital content within a learner journey?  

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:58 - Differences between The Learning Hack and Learning Podcasts
• 6:23 - How Adam got into learning podcasts
• 8:30 - Podcast Access
• 14:02 - Attention and Engagement
• 26:34 - Any theorists that influence his podcasts?
• 36:59 - Three tips for starting learning podcasts

Links

• The York University / BBC study mentioned in this episode: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1074320
• Assemble You's research report: https://www.assembleyou.com/audio-report-2023

Follow Adam

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamlacey
• Website: https://www.assembleyou.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Podcast: https://www.assembleyou.com/podcast

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

At the Learning Technologies France show in Paris this February, John talked to two of the industry's leading commentators, who both released significant pieces of research at the show. The L&D Global Sentiment Survey, run by Donald H Taylor, takes the pulse of the L&D community world-wide. The one-minute online poll asks L&D professionals internationally what they think will be hot in the following year. The Fosway 9-Grid™ report for Learning Systems plots the relative position of solutions and providers, predominantly within the UK and European market. Different solutions can be compared based on their Performance, Potential, Market Presence, Total Cost of Ownership and Future Trajectories across the market. Between them, these two surveys give a picture of where Learntech systems are in the post-pandemic world, and what is firing the expectations and imaginations of the learning community.

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:15 Don Taylor: What's changed since last year?
• 05:23 Is it unusual for a 'macro' issue like skills to dominate the survey?
• 07:21 AI
• 13:22 Metaverse
• 18:45 VR
• 21:07 Leading trends in the US
• 24:15 Is this a return to the pre-pandemic world?
• 26:45 David Wilson: The new 9-Grid for learning
• 28:05 Any surprises in the changes compared to last year?
• 33:43 'Ecosystemness'
• 42:40 Learning Systems market development

Follow Donald H. Taylor

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldhtaylor
• Website: https://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/insight/gss2023-results/
• Twitter: @DonaldHTaylor

Follow David Wilson

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwil23
• Fosway website: https://www.fosway.com/
• Twitter: @dwil23
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

A passion for learning brought Dinye Hernada, she says, from a muddy school field in Indonesia to the boardrooms of Germany's top companies. With a double masters in international management, she began her working life supporting digital transformation. Realizing, however, that investing in people often had a bigger and more sustainable impact, she switched to L&D. Dinye is now Senior Learning and Development Manager at HeyJobs. John talks to her about her career path to date, the challenges she has overcome, and what the future holds for her profession.  

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:21 - How Dinye got into the learning profession
• 5:15 - Dinye's learning career 7:11 - 30 under 30
• 10:08 - Progressing in business despite prejudices
• 13:11 - Where did the older generation of learn-tech go wrong?
• 21:24 - Dinye's take on the L&D profession
• 30:37 - AI taking over decision making
• 39:19 - Where to follow Dinye's future endeavours

Follow Dinye

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinyehernanda
• Website (personal): https://www.dinyehernanda.com/
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by Lindsey Coode – Skills are your Organization’s Superpower https://learningpool.com/skills-are-your-organizations-superpower/

Ethical Angel is a company that brings together learners in need of development opportunities with charities and good causes in need of the practical skills they are developing. John talks to the company's founder and CEO, Alexander Fahie, a young entrepreneur with a background in investment management. Alexander explains how he had the idea of bringing these two communities togther, how the collaboration works, and the results Ethical Angel is achieving for charitable causes though giving learners in organizations opportunities to try out the skills they are learning in real world situations.  

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:24 - Ethical Angel
• 5:54 - What do the causes get out of it?
• 11:40 - Cooperates and Employee's side
• 14:17 - The learning design
• 20:29 - How the solution facilitates
• 28:45 - Examples of working in practice
• 33:10 - What's an efficient business model?
• 39:03 - How can people get involved?

Follow Alexander

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-fahie
• Twitter: @ethicalangels
• Website: https://www.ethicalangel.com/
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by Lindsey Coode – Skills are your Organization’s Superpower https://learningpool.com/skills-are-your-organizations-superpower/

Leadership learning is perhaps the most prestitigious and well-funded of training staples. In a changing world, it has become democratized in recent years, and now embraces a more progressive (some would say liberal) agenda. Nevertheless it faces criticism from academics in highly respected institutions, who question its value.

In this wide-ranging discussion about the current state of leadership learning, John talks to Gustaf Nordbäck, CEO of Headspring Executive Development, a joint venture between the Financial Times and IE Business School. Under Gustaf’s direction Headspring has become a top provider of leadership solutions for clients around the world. How does he answer leadership's critics – and what is the future for leadership learning, in a world where decision-making becomes increasingly delegated to AI?

NB: We apologise for the crackles on John's mic during the interview, and hope these technical shortcomings do not detract too badly from your enjoyment.

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:13 - Leading Headspring
• 9:16 - Vision for leadership in the 21st Century
• 17:27 - How diverse is Leadership Learning?
• 24:35 - Differences in leadership styles
• 28:19 - Answering critics
• 35:47 - Digital Technology in course delivery
• 40:23 - AI in Leadership

Follow Gustaf:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustaf-nordback Headspring
• Website: https://www.headspringexecutive.com/
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer:

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Stephen Downes is a prominent speaker and writer in the field of educational technology and learning, known for his work on open educational resources, digital learning, and the development of the MOOC (massive open online course). He's currently a researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Downes sees three current technologies as being critical for the development of online education; metaverse, blockchain and AI. But rather than making airy pronouncements in clickbait blog posts about this techno-troika, he has thought hard about how they operate together, creating a possible future for online education. But in this new distributed, learner-driven world, will we still need universities?  

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:53 - The MOOCs of today
• 8:04 - Physical state of the brain
• 13:28 - The Metaverse
• 32:32 - Blockchain
• 38:57 - Artificial Intelligence
• 56:02 - What the university looks like in the future?

YouTube talks by Stephen mentioned in the discussion.

• https://youtu.be/iGi4DDCuzRw
• https://youtu.be/zCojHtC1aCw

Follow Stephen

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stdownes
• Website (Personal): https://www.downes.ca/
• Blog: http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/
• Website (personal): http://leftish.media/
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack

Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

'We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator' (António Guterres, United Nations Secretary General speaking at COP 27). Successive COPs have revealed a lack of will among the world's governments to make commitments that they'll actually stick by. So increasingly, people who aren't in government feel it’s down to them to do something. Every institution and organization of any size, it seems, has an environmental policy, and it falls to HR, L&D and educators of all stripes to communicate these policies. Learning professionals are therefore heavily involved in the response to the climate emergency. In this episode, John discusses with a distinguished climate scientist exactly where we are with controlling climate change and how best learning professionals can contribute. Robert Nicholls is Professor and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, based at the University of East Anglia. He has contributed extensively to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). His particular focus is the implications of sea-level rise, especially on coastal areas. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and is the co-editor of six books.

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:18 - The state of climate change
• 9:55 - Warming in coastal areas
• 14:02 - Effect of the energy crisis
• 23:50 - Confidence in engineering solutions
• 28:59 - Learning Departments' response
• 32:14 - Impact of grassroots activities
• 34:31 - What's improving?

Follow Professor Robert Nicholls

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-nicholls-2a97706
• Website (Personal): https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/about/staff/rjn.page
• Website (Tyndall Centre): https://tyndall.ac.uk/people/robert-nicholls/
• Email: [email protected]

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/
• Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Empathy is a big word in learning. We want to have more of it, so learning professionals are increasingly charged with helping to promote and somehow inculcate it in their learners. But the efficacy of programmes designed to do that thing has been highly questionable. In this episode we look in depth at an innovative programme designed by Make Real that has pioneered a way of increasing empathy. The programme has shown surprising results, and not just by the (often limited) standards by which training programmes are normally judged. Make Real collaborated with Empathy and VR researcher, Lynda Joy Gerry, to carry out a scientific evaluation of the programme. John talks to Lynda and Sophie Costin, of Make Real about the programme, and its implications for the future of learning.  

• 02:00 Intro
• 03:36 Setting up the programme
• 08:38 More detail about the learning programme
• 10:18 Why not do the programme over headsets?
• 11:32 Experiment description
• 16:34 What were the results?
• 23:26 Scientific analysis of the results
• 24:12 Why were these results surprising?
• 31:33 Implications for future research

The programme

• https://makereal.co.uk/turning-your-learners-into-activists/ (download a summary, the full academic paper, and watch a talk that Lynda and Sophie did at Learning Technologies about the research).

  Follow Sophie

• Twitter: @MakeRealLtd
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-costin-609a5935
• Website: https://makereal.co.uk/

Follow Lynda

• Twitter: @VirtualAlterity
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndajoygerry
• Website: http://www.lyndajoygerry.com/
• Blog: http://www.whatisexperience.com/

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/
• Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/

Learning Hack is on a mid-season break but here's another chance to hear one our most downloaded episodes.   John talks to Dr. Jane Bozarth, Director of Research at The Learning Guild, about how the rise of digital technology is changing expectations about the sort of skills and qualifications a learning professional should have in the 21st Century – and about her own, long career in learning. That career includes numerous books, work as a columnist for Learning Solutions Magazine, and a long-standing position as E-Learning Co-ordinator for the US state of North Carolina. More than all that, Jane has always been a fount of no-nonsense, practical advice for learning professionals, and there's planty on display in this interview.  

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:54 Role at the Learning Guild
• 06:07 The Guild Masters’ view on future of learning
• 11:36 Proliferation of tools raises L&D skills issues
• 16:46 How educated is L&D?
• 20:56 Is learning theory important to learning professionals?
• 25:25 Where is L&D with the pandemic right now?
• 28:55 The widening L&D skillset
• 33:28 Is L&D a buying function?
• 37:43 What has been her career journey in learning?

Mentioned in the discussion

• The Johari Window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
• Report: Guild Masters on The Future of Learning: https://www.learningguild.com/insights/266/guild-masters-on-the-future-of-learning/?from=home
• Report: Degrees for L&D Professionals: What, Why, and Worth? https://www.learningguild.com/insights/263/degrees-for-ld-professionals-what-why-and-worth/?from=content&mode=filter&source=insights
• Many other reports by Dr. Jane Bozarth can be found on the Learning Guild website: https://www.learningguild.com/

Contact Dr. Jane

• Twitter: @JaneBozarth
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janebozarth
• Website/Blog: http://bozarthzone.blogspot.com/

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

New research says that while workflow learning is thought to be the most effective way of learning by employees, neither L&D or the learners themselves have the time to implement it. What is going on here? To find out, John talked to David James, whose company sponsored the research. David has worked in People Development for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across EMEA. He is now Chief Learning Officer for 360 Learning, working with clients to develop and implement their digital learning strategies. David also hosts the Learning & Development podcast.  

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:54 - Learning in the flow of work
• 5:24 - David's definition of learning
• 13:14 - Stand out findings from the report
• 18:36 - Interpreting the time problem
• 33:50 - Recommendations for action
• 37:18 - David's background in learning

The Report: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/overlay/1495204428082/single-media-viewer   Follow David

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin
• Website: https://davidinlearning.com/
• Twitter: @DavidInLearning

Contact John Helmer

• Email: [email protected]
• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

Download the white paper from Learning Pool written by John Helmer – The Spacing Effect: Harnessing the Power of Spaced Practice for Learning That Sticks https://learningpool.com/spacing-effect-harnessing-power-of-spaced-practice/