What I’ve learnt about learning
It’s been a year since I started working on an exciting project that ambitioned to disrupt the world of learning. Easier said than done, of course. But this journey and all the exploration our team have done around learning led to some beautiful findings and I wanted to share the ones that inspired me the most.
This compilation of learnings combine insights from formal and informal research studies and also some personal thoughts on my particular learning journey.
After a survey we found out that the great majority of people consider themselves lifelong learners. Even if they hadn’t learnt something intentionally for quite a while, just the willingness and the appreciation of learning made them consider themselves lifelong learners. Sounds very promising but for our product to be successful we needed learning to be effective and not only aspirational. So there was still a lot to be discovered in terms of how we could turn those learning admirers into learning practitioners through an enjoyable experience.
Apparently human beings are one of the few species that keep their willingness to play and their curiosity after reaching adulthood. And, spoiler alert, that has a lot to do with effective learning.
But let’s start from the beginning. We decided to map users’ learning moments. We wanted to understand what was perceived as learning and where and when it happened the most. We set some guerrilla diaries for that purpose and immediately fell in love with some of the insights. From 8 a.m to 11 p.m. there was no moment of the day in which no one learnt nothing. Learning could have many sources and could be something you caught from a tv series, or even a twit, or something more formal, like a book or a training course. Meetings at work were the main trigger for learning something — Someone would just say something you don’t know and you’d go check what she was talking about, and there you go: learning. — When we asked people with kids though, the biggest trigger was their kids’ questions — How long does a whale live? and there you go, exploration and learning not to leave your kids’ curiosity unsatisfied. —
So we know learning can come from many sources, but we found out that it will be more effective if user is really convinced of the need of that learning. It’s also more effective when learner can play an active part on it. If user can interact, exercise and somehow evaluate their progress then magic happens. Let me explain this. When we see we succeeded in learning because we achieved something we were not capable of before, we generate dopamine. Dopamine makes us feel very good, and therefore it’s quite addictive. If we want users to really engage with their process of learning we should enable a way for them perceive they are achieving their goals.
Time is crucial, also. Not only because our brain has limited attention but also because we generate some barriers before committing to learn something, specially if we foresee it’s going to take a big piece of our precious time. Splitting knowledge into microlearnings is a good way to avoid those commitment barriers and earn a place in our users’ brain and heart.
And speaking about heart. We are sensitive human beings and if we connect emotionally with a piece of knowledge we will be more likely to really acquire it. Components like humor, a friendly face, or a known and admired professor will help create this emotional bond.
And for all aspirational lifelong learners who don’t see the moment of becoming practitioners, this insight is for you: Our learning capacity is flexible, the more you learn, the more capable of learning new things you are. So don’t be lazy, don’t be shy, start exploring that thing you always wanted to learn. Split it into small bites, fix achievable goals, and go for it! It’s really worth it.
