Developing soft skills with eLearning
ELearning is not normally the first delivery mode that comes to mind when we think about developing interpersonal and soft skills. Soft skills are still seen as skills that can only be taught through face to face training. Information dump with a quiz as an elearning approach do not work. This blog post is going explore some approaches I see working.
The nature of human communication has changed. In most workplaces more communication is online via email, video conference, desktop conferencing. When I reflect about the most the critical conversations I've had recently they have been on phone and not face to face. Maybe what we actually needs workplaces now is more skills in how deal with soft skills online.
Self-paced approaches that work
1. Video is a fantastic medium for developing soft skills. An approach with video we often use is:
- Show a great example and have the learner reflect or rate what is good about it.
- A series of interactive examples where the learner starts to think about how they would respond to each example.
2. Branching scenarios are a great option. Branching scenarios are like choose your own path adventure books. We have used these many times in teaching General Practitioner consulting skills and telephone counselling skills to LifeLine volunteers.
3. Adding self reflection activities help to trigger change and transfer of skills beyond the learning program. The nature of soft skills are both intrapersonal and interpersonal. A couple of useful techniques assist with reflection are:
- Using short answer questions without feedback.
- Using multiple choice questions for self assessment.
4. Using a peer review process. One of the reasons soft skills are hard to deal with in a 100% online course is that they are complex with grey areas. We have started to explore how peer review of short answer questions can be used to enhance learning and teaching of soft skills. An example would be the learner writes a response to a question and then another learner provides feedback to that learner’s response.
5. Video responses that are sent to a facilitator or peer for feedback. This is not something we have not tried yet. Some of the approaches we have heard about include learners using their phones to record responses and then sending it to the facilitator using a private youtube or vimeo account. This type of approach starts to cross-over into blending approaches.
In most cases online blended learning is the best solution!
Online blended approaches that work
Blended learning used to be just online plus face to face learning. What I think of as “online blended learning” focuses more on online communication tools.
Virtual classrooms
Virtual classroom and webinar technologies are a great replacement for face to face sessions. Unfortunately webinars have often become just online lectures. When a facilitator is able to work with a group over a period time and the learners become comfortable with the technology there are some great things that can be done in virtual classrooms. Some of these things are:
- Small group discussions and activities using breakout rooms.
- Roleplays - Some of our healthcare clients have done this successfully to help improve their skills in consultation with patients.
- Fishbowl activities where it might be a conversation between two people and other learners observe and reflect on what's happening.
Discussion forums.
Online discussions are great for complex scenarios where different personalities might respond in different ways. One of the powerful things about discussion boards are that they allow people time to think before they respond. The key to making online discussion work is they need to be well facilitated and supported
A couple of advanced techniques for discussion forums are:
online roleplays where the learner takes on the role and posts from that viewpoint.
interactive storytelling where the learners collaborate to build a story. These often start with “Once upon a time there was .... “ and then each learner takes turns in adding sentences that build the narrative.
What other approaches have you seen that work? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
