Desire Paths to Learning

Thanks to a tweet by Sahana (#sahana2802), I recently read a post on the concept of desire paths by Tony Baldasaro. The concept is from architecture and is not new. Infact, it was introduced by renaissance-man, Gaston Bachelard. He coined the term in his book,The Poetics of Space. He called these les chemins du désir: pathways of desire.

As per wikipedia "A desire path (also known as a desire line or social trail) is a path developed by erosion caused by animal or human footfall. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination."

I am sure all of us have seen these paths. If not, here is a series of photos from flickr that show various desire paths captured by people across the world. There are many anecdotes that talk about how architects and developers allow people to create their desire paths and then build actual pathways and walking areas based on these desire paths.

I am fascinated by this concept because it not only applies to the design of paths in parks and neighbourhoods, but it is perhaps closely related to the design of everything. I am not surprised to know that when walking across two points, people try to find the shortest distance between these points and create their own paths. In that sense, such paths are not designated but natural paths. These paths are not created by design but by instinct and experience.

Because I am a learning professional, my obvious way to look at things is from a learning perspective. From a learning design perspective, here’s how I’d like to apply the concept of desire paths to learning:

1) Stay closest to the way people naturally learn. We naturally learn from our mistakes, by actively doing things we haven’t done before, and by talking to people around us. Stick to these principles when designing learning interventions. Critically evaluate whether your learning design is indeed the most natural, effective and best way to learn or is there a better design aka desire path out there.

2) Involve learners in the design process. Just like people create their own desire paths in parks by walking across grass and gravel, we must involve our learners during the design phase when creating any learning product. Learners should be encouraged to share their version of the ‘desire path’ of learning - the path that offers the shortest distance between where they are and where they want to be. Listen carefully and attentively. Incorporate the inputs into the design. Build your learning intervention around the desire paths of learning.

3) Select a few learners to review the output before releasing it to the world. Use the concept of prototyping and conduct early reviews such as beta teach etc. to ensure that the learners’ desire paths match the learning path incorporated into the learning intervention. Don’t be afraid to make the corrections. Remember, if you won’t change your way, the learners will find a way to change it or find their own way!

4) Listen to your learners and use the inputs for subsequent designs. Once your learners start using the product, they will share feedback – both constructive and positive. Listen to the feedback and act on the comments. Check if the feedback can be incorporated into the next build or the next course. The best features of the world’s best software have come up because of user-feedback. Don’t ignore it. Use it to build a better product just like architects use desire paths to construct concrete pathways in parks.

5) Stay informed of the learning patterns. Pay attention to what learners prefer in terms of styles, forms, and technology. Make design choices in tune with these preferences. Design learning on the basis of what is currently used instead of forcing the use of a certain type of learning design. At the very basic level – these could be the changes in the interface – menu, buttons, and fonts. At a higher level, these could involve creating blended learning interventions that utilize social media and mobile learning technologies. Be sensitive to the needs of your learners.

As a learning designer, the concept of desire paths gives me an opportunity to reflect about the needs of my learners. It forces me to first observe and then create. The concept also allows me to trust my learners to know the most ‘desirable path’ to their own learning. I know that I can rely on my learners to contribute towards coming up with the most effective way to learn naturally.

Assessing Informal Learning

For March the LCBQ is: How do you assess whether your informal learning, social learning, continuous learning, performance support initiatives have the desired impact or achieve the desired results?

My response to the question – I think we should assess informal learning but I don't think I want to asses informal learning using the same set of parameters often used for formal learning.

Need to assess
To me, the objective of all learning (including formal and informal) is to achieve the 'desired' change in behaviour and performance. Therefore, I want to continue to assess performance to see if the ‘desired results’ have been achieved. And since informal learning contributes a great deal to our performance, therefore, it is important to think about how to assess informal learning.

Difference between formal and informal learning
We are constantly learning - either by ourselves or because others want us to learn. To me, there are two important distinctions between formal and informal learning:
• WHO drives the learning
• HOW it happens

Formal learning: All formal learning is driven by an external entity - an individual, a school, a college, a company etc. The process of formal learning is governed by stakeholders who define the system and the desired outcome. Therefore, the measure of success of such training is defined by that individual, school, college or company. The parameters of measurement for formal learning range from smiley sheets to return on investments that attempt to show the dollar value of training on the other end of the continuum. Even with such a wide range within the Kirkpatrick model, I can’t say that as learning professionals, we have been successful in measuring the impact of formal learning.

Informal learning: Research points that almost 70% of the learning is on-the-job and is acquired in an informal setting. So, informal learning happens naturally and as a consequence of a person motivated and wanting to learn. In that sense, informal learning is driven by the individual herself. The individual is intrinsically motivated and wants to learn and creates or utilizes the right environment to trigger this learning. This kind of learning almost always happens when the individual wants to learn to solve a problem or become better at what she does. Examples include connecting with your colleague over a coffee conversation to identify the right choice in a particular situation, tweeting about a given challenge to seek perspectives or solutions, blogging about an issue to seek inputs and approaches etc. With a myriad of social learning options available, the range of examples is also wide! Since, informal learning is triggered by an individual, therefore, in my opinion the success of such learning can only be measured by that individual.

Assessing informal learning – the individual focus
The question is then, as an individual who is undertaking informal learning, how can I measure the success of the time and effort I spent in doing this learning. Since all learning is a continuous process and not an isolated event, it is therefore difficult to identify what was that single defining moment in the process that caused me to learn. However, it is easier to identify whether my learning objective was met each time I triggered my own learning and learnt in a social environment in an informal way. There are a couple of things that I personally look at, for my own informal learning processes:

1) Degree of achievement of learning objective – If the informal learning helped me solve the problem at hand and/or do my job better, and basically helped me meet my learning objective, it was worth it! For example, if I wrote a blog post to seek inputs about a particular challenge, did the post and the comments from other people help me arrive at the solution? If it did, I am more likely to write more posts and therefore increase the use of social learning tools and technologies to undertake informal learning. It is a matter of learning objective being met – a yes or a no. In that sense, this is perhaps an objective way of looking at the scenario.

2) Degree of satisfaction – Now this one is totally subjective and focuses on the softer aspects of the learning. The degree of satisfaction depends on the quality of learning that happened or the quality of the solution that I came up with basis my informal learning intervention. There is some place for evaluating how satisfied I have been with the learning process and the learning that eventually took place through informal means. The degree of satisfaction depends on many other factors such as how quick, effective, complete, and useful the solution has been.

3) Degree of impact on others – If what I learnt in an informal way, I can utilize and apply to solve my own problems and problems posed by others, I find the learning to be effective and worth the effort. In that sense, this is my parameter to evaluate ‘learning transfer’. Perhaps, I can make it more objective by turning this into numbers – how many people I impacted, how frequently did I utilize my informal learning, how satisfied others were with my recommended solution etc.

There are perhaps other ways of assessing informal learning and I do it unconsciously all the time. Assessing informal learning is challenging but it seems do-able especially if the learning is evaluated by the individual who learnt in the first place!

Assessing informal learning – the organizational focus
Moving to an organizational platform – as employees, we spend time and effort in informal learning. Therefore, it is equally important for an organization to analyze how effective these efforts really are. Instead of focussing on hard numbers such as those typically used for formal learning, organizations should focus their efforts on allowing employees to self-reflect on their informal learning interventions and help employees evaluate and assess the process. Perhaps, the individual parameters suggested above can be incorporated into the performance appraisal or annual learning review process forcing both the employees and the organization to reflect and analyze what works and what doesn’t work for informal learning. Organizations can work towards creating environments that promote informal learning and remove organizational barriers and hierarchies by building informal network of employees across divisions and roles. Organizations can further analyse such networks and evaluate the type and frequency of usage. By enabling social collaboration and promoting the use of social media such as twitter and employee blogs, organizations can increase the reach and impact of informal learning.

Conclusion
I agree that we should assess our efforts towards informal learning. If we don’t reflect and analyse it in ways that seem meaningful to us, we are leaving too much unanswered. Besides if the goal of all learning is to move towards a desirable change in behaviour and performance, it is important to assess and evaluate all forms of learning with that yardstick. However, I don’t think organizations should try to translate informal learning into only measurable numbers and use existing models of training evaluation to evaluate informal learning. I think we should rather focus on increasing both individual and organizational reflection about the learning efforts that find their way in informal learning settings and use that reflection to analyze the impact of informal learning towards increasing performance.

What Children Can Teach Us About Learning

I am always inspired by the following quote by Thomas Szasz, an American psychiatrist and academic:

"Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all."

This quote, very simply, summarizes what children can teach us about learning. Learning involves letting go of our ‘ego’ and the notion that I know it all.

Anybody who has a child and/or has observed children learning knows that children learn at rocket speed! What makes children good learners?

• Intuitive - It has been proved that children start learning in the womb. They can recognize their mother's smell and voice much before they are out into this world. They probably learn because they are 'programmed' in a certain way to help themselves. To be safe and secure in the big world, an unborn child learns to identify her mother before she can see her. So, learning comes to children quite naturally and children preserve this intuitiveness or the natural ability to learn.

• Curious - The curiosity of a child is unbeatable! They keep throwing questions at you from the minute they start speaking. They want to know everything about everything. At 2 years of age, my daughter's favourite words were, in broken Hindi, 'Je Kya Hai' meaning 'What is this?’ She asked me this question about everything she saw without blinking an eyelid! Even though, not all her questions got her answers, she always wanted to know more. As she grew older, the questions changed from ‘what’ to ‘why’ but they kept on coming! Through the child’s eye, everything is worth exploring and nothing is ordinary.

• Enthusiastic - The enthusiasm of children is unquestionable. They have endless energy and passion and this energy transcends every activity they undertake. Children are also spontaneous. They don't plan everything they want to learn. They do not worry about the future and are happy to live enthusiastically in the moment. Children like to think and solve problems and they believe they can solve any problem! They never question their own ability and are always enthusiastic to learn. In a class of 4-year olds, ask who all can paint and see the number of hands that rise. Repeat the same question with a group of 20-year olds and see the difference!

• Courageous - Children have a lot of courage and they are not afraid to fail and learn from mistakes. I remember, as a child, I was extremely enthusiastic about learning how to cycle. Countless falls did not deter me from trying yet one more time until I perfected the fine skill of speed and balance. Children always keep trying and never give up. This courage generates self-confidence and helps them become ambitious. Ask any child what they want to grow up to be and pat come fearless responses - astronauts, movie stars, doctors, scientists, artists etc. Their dreams are always big.

• Observant - Children are blank slates and they are open to learning from others. They consciously and unconsciously model behaviour that they observe and like. There is a deep intensity with which children observe their role-models. And most learning involves just this deep observation and no formal instructions. When my daughter was 3 years old, she had already learnt how to tie a saree (an Indian 9-yard dress) using my dupatta (a long stole). She would also ensure that she carried a small handbag on her shoulders, wore my mother-in-law's sandals and walked out of the house saying 'Bye. I am going to the office. See you in the evening!’ And I never taught her any of this!

In order to be successful, adults should learn these qualities from children. The world perhaps needs more ‘childish’ learners!

Watch this TED video by child prodigy Adora Svitak. Adora says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.