New: Hierarchy of Learning Activities

The Hierarchy of Learning Activities is a new tool to guide the rapid evaluation and selection of learning activities to optimize any learning experience. It shows least effective learning activities at the bottom and most effective learning activities at the top. Although most of today’s learning activities arguably fit in the bottom two levels, this current state doesn’t have to dictate our ideals and plans for the future.

Not a 4-Step Process

First, let's discuss what it isn’t. It is NOT a 4-step process. There is no need to start at the bottom or any of the bottom three levels. Rather, activities at the bottom should be compressed or removed whenever possible.

If learners need an introduction, a demonstration, a conversation, or a plan in order to begin the process, these activities can be minimized to leave the vast majority of the learning time for the more effective activities of learning (in the top level).

Measuring Success

There are 3 immediate measurements of success for using the Hierarchy of Learning Activities. First, the percentage of time you spend in the top level. If you spend at least 80% of the learning time within the top level, I believe your probability for real-world impact is greatly improved. Second, the number of cycles of practice (performing the task) and feedback (receiving constructive ideas for improvement) you complete. Third, and most importantly, your rating on the rubric (A.K.A. scorecard) you're using to evaluate performance. For more info, read my article on rubrics.

Feedback Is At The Top

The top level of the Hierarchy of Learning Activities is all about feedback (ideally it leverages a rubric). Behavior based feedback is the most relevant form of content a learner will ever receive because the best feedback comes when it’s needed most. Out of thousands of pieces of information that could potentially help the learner, feedback is given in response to gaps in the learner’s current performance. It’s relevant. It’s directly applicable. It’s just-in-time. It’s efficient. It’s the most helpful idea the learner could receive at that moment, and nothing more.

Prioritizing Skills Over Knowledge

I believe the learning industry is Still Recovering From the Knowledge Age; we’re still too busy teaching knowledge, while we should be helping learners develop skills. I ask a simple question: Do you want your employees to know lots of things, or do lots of things?

Because my job (and most of the jobs I’m aware of in our economy) prioritize doing, I created the Hierarchy of Learning Activities to prioritize direct skill development. The top of the hierarchy focuses on helping people perform (skills) a little better with each passing moment of the learning activity. The primary objective is to maximize performance.

The hierarchy de-prioritizes knowledge based activities, putting them at the bottom (less effective). Most of these learning activities are based on the long outdated paradigm that education is filling people’s heads up with knowledge. After the instructor “delivered” the material, the job was done. If you find yourself utilizing these learning activities the majority of the time, you now have a roadmap to increase the effectiveness of your learning activities.

Engagement vs Relevance

I believe engagement is often mistaken for learning. I don’t believe that just because learners are engaged in the activity that it indicates learning is taking place (see Level 1 of Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Training Evaluation). I consider engagement to be a prerequisite for learning to occur. Of course learners need to be engaged (and that doesn’t mean they’re learning).

On the other hand, relevance can encompass engagement. In designing a learning activity we can ask: why should the learner care about improving this specific target behavior? If the learner is driven to make their customers happy, and they think improving the target behavior will make the customer even happier, the learner may be very interested in improving the target behavior.

The Hierarchy of Learning Activities is a progression of relevance. Less relevant activities are on the bottom. More relevant activities are the top.

For example, in a workshop, the facilitator might gather stories of events that occurred within the organization that the individuals belong to. This is more relevant than a lecture that contains stories about people in far away countries. Similarly, stories from the group about current issues they’re facing would be more relevant than stories from last year or last month that happened to people who aren’t in the group.

A common example from my own work: I often lead a learning experience where I ask a participant what tough issue she’s facing regarding a specific conversation skill. She shares an issue. We help her plan what she might try next. This takes about 2 minutes. The participant then practices the solution through several cycles, receiving quick feedback after each practice. The feedback cycles take a total of 8 minutes. After a week, the participant reports back to the group on how she applied what she practiced during the workshop. It’s engaging and relevant.

Shifting Onus To The Learner

As we review the hierarchy from bottom to top, each successive level has more onus on the individual to take the information (e.g. an article, a discussion, a plan, a piece of feedback, etc.) and do something with it. The top is more application based during the learning activity itself. In the top level (Practice + Feedback) we see immediate, direct, behavior based feedback is the most actionable form of information.

In the lower levels of the hierarchy, the facilitator typically takes most of the onus until the end of the learning experience. At this point, the facilitator dumps the onus unto the learners and essentially says: “I’ve given you all the tools you need. Now go figure out how to apply them.” I believe this is terribly unfair to the learner. Even in the “Planning” level, the learner can benefit from feedback on their plan (Is it a good plan? How could the plan be improved?).

A Roadmap of the Future

I see this hierarchy as a roadmap for future methodological innovation in the learning industries. My hope is that you can take this diagram to your next learning experience and use it to evaluate and improve its effectiveness. These questions may help:

1. What level is this learning activity?
2. What less-effective activities can we exchange for more effective activities?
3. What content can we repackage from absorbing, discussing, and planning activities into concise bites of easily digestible feedback for use in a practice session?
4. In order to operate in the top level, how can we either simulate the real-life experience, or bring feedback to the real-life experience?

I Call You to Action

The graphic is placed throughout the article to minimize inconvenient scrolling and to help you Absorb the content. I hope you'll Discuss your thoughts in the comments below and tell me how you plan to utilize the Hierarchy of Learning Activities. Most importantly, I hope you'll create Practice + Feedback learning activities for yourself and others and let me know about your successes.