Training is increasingly evolving from single events to complex processes. How can HR development professionals 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"
Training in companies is progressing rapidly: Learning methods are becoming more digital and diverse. Learning itself is becoming increasingly self-determined and interactive in one way or another. The classic “training day” is increasingly transforming 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 HR professionals: 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 short: A learning path is the learning journey of your employees or the participants in your digital training through the entire learning process.
The learning path describes the individual stages that a learner goes through until they reach the learning objective. There are different phases: from preparing for the training measure to the long-term transfer into everyday professional 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 at all times. Your employees also know exactly what to expect from the beginning, are aware of the necessary steps, and understand what and why they should learn.
To create such a learning path, you need to clarify two questions in advance:
1. Who is your target group?
When you design a learning path, the learner is at the center. You build the process, the necessary content, and the methods around the learner. For this, you need a good understanding of who your target group actually is: a learner persona. On 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 concrete goal that is also communicated to the learners. You can clarify this goal through three questions:
What do my employees need to learn?
What knowledge do they already have?
What knowledge do I still need to impart to them?
An example: (1) The employees of your sales team should learn how 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 the learning objectives, you can now start planning your employees' learning path. Each learner's journey essentially consists of three phases, which may include several steps: preparation, learning phase, and transfer phase. For your own learner journey, you can certainly include additional individual phases.
1. Preparation Phase: The first station in the learning path includes all steps from the point at which your employee learns that they need to learn something until the actual learning process begins.
Possible Steps:
Your employees are informed about the upcoming training, the process, and the objectives, for example via email or personally by a manager.
You emotionally prepare your employees for 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 steps in the learning path from the very first learning content to the last. How this phase proceeds varies from topic to topic and from learner to learner.
Possible Steps:
Decide which content should be taught in the learning phase.
Choose the methods that best fit the content. Should there be an in-person event or an online course? Should different digital learning methods be combined? Tip: Get an overview of the most common digital learning methods!
If you want to offer blended learning, define the process of in-person and online phases. Choose 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 essentially consists of three phases, each of which may include several steps: preparation, learning phase, and transfer phase. For your own learning path, you can certainly include additional individual phases.
1. The Preparation Phase
The first station in the learning path includes all steps from the point at which your employees learn that they need to learn something until the actual learning process begins.
Possible Steps:
Your employees are informed about the upcoming training, the process, and the objectives, for example via email or personally by a manager.
You emotionally prepare your employees for 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. The Learning Phase
The second phase includes all steps of the learning path from the first learning content to the last. How this phase proceeds varies from topic to topic and from learner to learner.
Possible Steps:
Decide which content should be taught in the learning phase.
Choose the methods that best fit the content. Should there be an in-person event or an online training? Should different digital learning methods be combined? Tip: Get an overview of the most common digital learning methods!
If you want to offer blended learning, define the process of in-person and online phases.
3. The Transfer Phase
The third phase includes all steps from the end of the actual learning until the long-term application in everyday professional life.
Possible Steps:
Consider how your employees are supposed to concretely apply the new knowledge in everyday life.
Create transfer tasks that help with the transfer of the new knowledge into your employees' everyday lives.
Develop options for assessing learning progress, for example knowledge tests or a final examination.
Bring these three phases and the steps that are important to you into a chronological sequence or combine them appropriately for your employees – this results in your finished learning path!
2 Learning Path Examples
If you're unsure about what your finished learning path might look like, we have two examples for you:
Example 1: Process
In this example, you can see that even a simple presentation is enough to document the process. This learning path shows the process for a training according to the blended learning concept with changing in-person 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 presentation 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 presented learning paths follow the blended learning principle by combining in-person 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 choose the right model for you.
We hope this article has provided you with some useful information and wish you much success in creating your learning paths!
