Training is increasingly evolving from single events to complex processes. How can those involved in personnel development structure these learning processes for themselves and the learners? Quite simply: with a learning path! Here you will learn what exactly a learning path is and how to create digital learning paths for the participants of your online courses.
From "Learning Event" to "Learning Process"
Continuing education in companies is rapidly progressing: Learning methods are becoming more digital and diverse. Learning itself is increasingly self-directed and interactive in one way or another. The classic "training day" is transforming more and more into "self-learning" over a longer period of time. In short: A learning event is increasingly becoming a learning process.
This presents a new challenge for those involved in personnel development: How can you structure this learning process and guide your employees through the process? The solution to this question is the learning path.
What is a learning path?
In brief: A learning path is the learning journey of your employees or the participants in your digital training throughout the entire learning process.
The learning path describes the individual stages that a learner goes through until they achieve the learning objective. There are different phases: from preparing for the training measure to the long-term transfer into professional everyday life. The focus is on the employee or course participant who will later go through the learning process.
The learning path describes the route of the employees through all stages of the learning process.
Create your own learning path
A learning path helps you keep the learning process in view. Your employees also know from the very beginning exactly what the procedure is, are aware of the necessary steps, and understand what and why they are supposed to learn.
To create such a learning path, you need to clarify two questions in advance:
1. Who is your target group?
When designing a learning path, the learner is at the center. You build the procedure, necessary content, and methods around the learner. For this, you need a good understanding of who your target audience actually is: a learner persona. In the Shiftlearning blog, you will find a short but very helpful guide for developing learner personas.
2. What is the learning objective?
For every learning path, you should define a specific objective that is also communicated to the learners. Through three questions, you can define this objective:
What do my employees need to learn?
What knowledge do they currently have?
What knowledge do I still need to impart to them?
An example: (1) Your sales team employees should learn to explain a new product to customers. (2) They generally understand how the product works but do not know all the technical features. (3) What they need is detailed knowledge of the product's features.
The three phases of a learning path
With a target group and learning objectives, you can now start planning your employees' learning path. Each learner's journey basically has three phases, which can include several steps: preparation, learning phase, and transfer phase. For your own learner's journey, you can, of course, include further individual phases as well.
1. Preparation Phase: The first station in the learning path includes all the steps from the moment your employee learns that they need to learn something until the point when the actual learning process begins.
Possible steps:
Your employees are informed about the upcoming training, the process, and the goals, for example via email or personally by a manager.
You emotionally align your employees to the learning path, for example through a video from the trainer explaining why the training is important.
You assess the current learning status of your employees, for example through a short online questionnaire.
2. Learning Phase: The second phase includes all the steps in the learning path from the first actual learning content to the last one. How this phase proceeds varies from topic to topic and from learner to learner.
Possible steps:
Decide which content should be conveyed in the learning phase.
Select the methods that best fit the content. Should there be a face-to-face event or an online training? Should various digital learning methods be combined? Tip: Get an overview of the most common digital learning methods!
If you want to offer blended learning, establish the procedure for face-to-face and online phases. Decide on one of the models in blended learning:
The 3 phases of a learning path
With a target group and learning objectives, you can now start planning your employees' learning path. Each learning path generally consists of three phases, each of which can include several steps: preparation, learning phase, and transfer phase. For your own learning path, you can, of course, include additional individual phases.
1. The Preparation Phase
The first station in the learning path includes all the steps from the moment your employees learn that they need to learn something until the point when the actual learning process begins.
Possible steps:
Your employees are informed about the upcoming training, the process, and the goals, for example via email or personally by a manager.
You emotionally engage your employees in the learning path, for example through a video from the trainer that explains why the training is important.
You assess the current learning status of your employees, for instance through a short online questionnaire.
2. The Learning Phase
The second phase includes all steps in the learning path from the first learning content to the last. The way this phase unfolds can vary depending on the topic as well as the learner.
Possible steps:
Decide which content is to be conveyed in the learning phase.
Select the methods that fit best with the content. Should there be a face-to-face event or an online training? Should various digital learning methods be combined? Tip: Get an overview of the most common digital learning methods!
If you want to offer blended learning, establish the procedure for face-to-face and online phases.
3. The Transfer Phase
The third phase includes all the steps from the end of the actual learning until the long-term application in professional daily life.
Possible steps:
Consider how your employees should concretely apply the new knowledge in everyday life.
Create transfer tasks that assist in transferring the new knowledge into your employees' everyday routines.
Develop methods for evaluating learning progress, such as knowledge tests or a final exam.
Bring these three phases and the steps important to you into a chronological order or combine them appropriately for your employees – and thus you will have your completed learning path!
2 Learning Path Examples
If you are unsure about what your finished learning path might look like, here are two examples for you:
Example 1: Procedure
In this example, you can see that even a simple representation is sufficient to capture the process. This learning path illustrates the process for a training session based on the blended learning concept with alternating face-to-face and online phases, as well as extended transfer support.
Learning path for blended learning
Example 2: Timeline
This learning path from the Business Performance Academy is not clearly divided into phases. Instead, the representation shows the timeline over 200 days. The learning and transfer phases are not separated but are planned alternately.
Learning path of the Business Performance Academy
Both shown learning paths follow the blended learning principle by combining face-to-face events with online courses.
Do you want to integrate blended learning into your employees' learning journey? Then download the overview of the most popular models in blended learning now and select the model that suits you best.
We hope that this article has provided you with some useful information and wish you much success in creating your learning paths!
