Teaching adults

http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~dschugurensky/faqs/qa9.html

bottom line of all of that (and a distillation of my studies at OISE)

adults do better with experiential learning than with lessons/notes/handouts/any kind of video film

you've really got to go hands-on with adults if you want good reviews/repeat students/references

you have to look at what you're proposing to teach, and why people might be motivated to learn with you (they're not going to learn from you) - consider their motivations and you'll do well

If I make a point of taking a class at a brick and mortar location, I want something more than I could have gotten by doing a Google search on the internet and printing out the materials.

I'd want the class to be interactive with the opportunity to practice what is being taught via role play, discussion or hands on experimentation.

If it was a beginning class about cameras, I'd want to be able to handle various types of cameras, to open them up, and look at the inner workings, take a few snapshots. I'd want to be able to compare film, digital and video along with different types of lenses. I'd want to be able to see and dissect the same scenes photographed with the various types of equipment to see the differences in use, end results as well as how vastly the limits of each type of equipment can be pushed to inspire creativity. I'd want to learn what to look for so I'm a more educated shopper when buying a camera.

This article may be of interest to you. Lots of good info in it not just for online learning.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38920

Online Learning: What Works.
Big Think Editors on June 17, 2011, 12:27 PM

As we enter a new era of online education it is crucial to determine what types of tools engage students in this environment. More specifically, what is the most effective way to teach short, actionable business lessons online? What sources of insight do people trust most?


Big Think posed a series of questions to 350 university-educated online users, with the goal of understanding the best way to deliver brief online learning experiences. Our survey uncovered four key findings:

1. Online learners prefer video to text.
Given a choice between text and video of equal length on the same learning topic, more than twice as many online users chose video over text.

2. Video is more engaging than text.
Those who chose video were more likely to find the content insightful and actionable—and more likely to say they would watch a similar video again in the future.

3. Real-world leaders are the most trusted source of business insights.
When asked to rank what source they trusted most for business insights, more than 50% chose “recognized industry leader.”

4. Peer knowledge matters. Following industry leaders, respondents were most likely to trust their peers.

Respondents were asked to imagine they were business leaders working to create a dynamic corporate culture. Given two minutes to consume actionable advice on the topic, would they rather a) watch a video featuring a current CEO or b) read a text excerpt from a book?

70% chose the video, demonstrating a marked preference for this format over written text.

After watching the video or reading the excerpt, respondents were asked to agree or disagree that the material was "insightful," and whether they would be willing to view or read similar material again.

89% of video learners found the clip (featuring Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com) insightful, and 93% would repeat the experience. Meanwhile, only 65% of the excerpt readers chose "agree” or “strongly agree,” and 69% would choose to read a similar text again.

In short, video learners had a significantly more satisfying experience than did those who chose text-based learning.

Finally, respondents were asked to rank seven sources of business insights––Family, University, Peer, Industry Leader, Recruiters, Media, and Internet Search––in order of reliability. 54% ranked Industry Leader in the top slot––more than all of the other choices combined. At 15%, Peer was the next highest-ranked source.

The results are clear. For brief, actionable learning experiences, students and professionals prefer video. They want to hear relevant ideas from sources they trust: industry leaders and peers.

Increasingly, online courses are the choice of busy adults seeking career advice and professional development. The feedback from this survey should prove invaluable to anyone designing online learning experiences.

Here's another article with some good insights from another point of view:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38873

Learning Unplugged - Find it on the Internet but Learn it in Real Life
Kirsten Winkler on June 14, 2011, 9:37 AM

In early 2009, I came across a new trend on the social web that immediately resonated with me. Local communities used a new platform called Meetup (www.meetup.com) to organize offline events. Although the video Meetup used back then to showcase the service is a bit weird, in fact it reminds me of old MTV days, it brings the message across pretty well.

Learning Unplugged - Find it on the Internet but Learn it in Real Life
Kirsten Winkler on June 14, 2011, 9:37 AM
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Meetup-03

In early 2009, I came across a new trend on the social web that immediately resonated with me. Local communities used a new platform called Meetup (www.meetup.com) to organize offline events. Although the video Meetup used back then to showcase the service is a bit weird, in fact it reminds me of old MTV days, it brings the message across pretty well.

“Back then” people felt, the Internet became more of a separator than a unifier and the picture of us sitting in a dark room in front of computer screens while socially interacting through networks and short messages seemed to be somewhat the unpleasant but inevitable future.

But Meetup saw it the other way round, why not using the Internet as a mean of connecting with like minded people and then take this relationship into the real world. Remember, in those days buzz words like “local” or “hyper local” which are big topics and business today were not on the radar even. No Groupon, no Living Social, Facebook Deals or whatsoever. Another video made by one of my favorite creators Lee LeFever in June 2008 explains the concept in more detail.

Of course, Meetup has a very broad approach as it is a platform for anyone who wants to set up a local Meetup on basically any topic. That said, there has been a lot of learning / teaching centered activity going on using the platform from day one.

The second startup in this space and one of my personal favorites is TeachStreet (www.teachstreet.com). Founded in 2007 by Dave Schappell because he could not find a local driving school to learn how to ride his scooter, TeachStreet is an online marketplace that wants to connect local teachers, tutors and schools with students. The premise is to offer high quality results for students and hence high quality leads for teachers as the alternatives of searching for a local teacher are simply too broad and often don’t come up with the best result. As a targeted service for life long learning, TeachStreet aims to cut out the noise and focuses on delivering relevant results. In its latest addition to the service, students are now able to post a request for a class and teacher / tutors can contact those students directly. Although TeachStreet also offers the possibility to search for online lessons, the focus is clearly on getting people to visit “real life” classes. The same is of course true for similar services like School of Everything (www.schoolofeverything.com) in Europe and TeachStreet’s Australian partner doMore (www.domore.com.au).

The latest addition to this trend is a start-up called Skillshare www.skillshare.com and it comes full circle with the initial idea of Meetup. Whereas TeachStreet and the other marketplaces aim to connect students with professional teachers, classes on Skillshare are taught by “people like you and me”. In the light of discussions about the value of a college degree, DIY University and the power of grassroots movements in today’s society, this seems to be a very interesting approach to me. To end this post to where it had started, I leave you with the line I especially like in the video “No webcams, no downloads just real classes.”.