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Self learning in workshops

How do you manage a group that is self-learning in a workshop environment?

Self-learning in workshops has been proven to produce effective and long-term results as well as being a great deal of fun.  I have found that the self-learning workshop method is an easier way to effectively teach a group of users, including those of mixed abilities.

Allowing users to learn in their own individual way is the key to success when it comes to self-learning in a workshop.  There are various types of intellectual ability, and some of the more relevant ones for adult learning in IT are:

• linguistic intelligence
• logical-mathematical intelligence
• spatial intelligence
• bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• interpersonal intelligence

The above types of intelligence can be used to extrapolate the different learning styles from the users in the following way:

• explain why certain skills are taught
• task-oriented instead of memorising - tasks should be common tasks used in their everyday job
• acknowledge different learning levels and experience, ie pairing users into groups with a mixture of weak and strong candidates - this will promote independent learning, confidence and understanding
• allow adults to learn from their mistakes - mistakes driven learning helps users to try things out without thinking they will cause any damage or delete files, hence promoting confidence in the user to play around with the system

Hopefully this brief overview has given you food for thought.  Generally a combination of both conventional and self learning strategies in workshops will produce the required results quickly and efficiently.

Christine Dorman, Ideal

How do you manage a group that is self-learning in a workshop environment?

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