Here we conclude the Charity Learning Consortium's interview with the Stroke Association's Kyla Lacey-Davidson.
What insights from the Charity Learning Conference will you take back to the workplace?
I think that we have lots to consider within the context of the theme which stood out from Don Taylor, Jane Hart, and Perry Timms’ sessions at this year’s Charity Learning Conference: ie the way that people learn and work is changing, and we in learning and development have to work to keep up with that pace of change so that we can support our people in their roles, changing the world for people affected by stroke.
In particular, Don’s training ghetto is such a simple diagram, but one that has so much relevance to so many business functions. Learning and development is not the only team impacted by the way that technology is changing and shaping our home and work lives. All areas of our business are being affected and we need to work to avoid that corner of ‘comfortable extinction’.
How do you gain buy-in for learning technologies within your organisation?
We have gained organisational buy-in through working hard to provide our people with the right systems, the right courses, and the right resources, at the right time. We relaunched our eLearning LMS in 2010, placing a website at the front-end with links to all of our learning courses and resources. As a result, we saw engagement flourish over the next three years as the number of people accessing the LMS jumped up from 36 people to 350 people in the first year, right up to over 1,000 people by 2013. This increase in engagement was due to:
Increasing our course catalogue
Linking some of our online courses to the induction pathway
Producing our own online courses specific to stroke and the Stroke Association
Making our system the place to go to find out about learning
And most importantly, communicating with all of our teams to ensure that they knew what was available to them
As engagement with online learning has grown, our biggest challenge has been responding to the demand from so many corners of the business to get training related to their teams, their services, or their systems online. This is where moving ilearn over to Moodle with the Charity Learning Consortium has been incredibly well timed. Where before we were restricted to utilising SCORM formats for any online learning for the sake of measurement, we can now upload our content outside the confines of SCORM eLearning, and instead link to web content, relevant documents and guides, Moodle course pages, and Moodle activities like quizzes and wikis.
We have seen a great response from colleagues who are empowered by our new platform to produce their own learning materials, rather than rely on us to do this for them. This takes some pressure off our team too, freeing us to provide more guidance and consultancy to the business around online learning. We're never bored.
How do you encourage a learning culture at the Stroke Association?
Everyone who works and volunteers at the Stroke Association is incredibly passionate and focused on changing the world for people affected by stroke. As a result, we are all passionate about learning about stroke, about how we can better support the people that we work with, and about how we can work more effectively and more efficiently. We find that by making our learning relevant, and placing it within the context of the field and sector that we work in, our people are incredibly responsive and enthused about learning. This is where our efforts to engage with all areas of our business helps so much.
The advances we have made in learning and development over the last three years has enabled us to increase the range of courses, resources and tools that we make available to our staff and volunteers. With the autonomy to learn in a way and at a time that suits them, they are empowered to improve their knowledge and skills within their current role, and access learning that will help to develop them towards the next step in their career.
What three tips would you share with other learning professionals, from your experience?
Engage with every corner of your business and listen to their problems
Don’t stop learning. Make time for your own development, otherwise you will end up in that dreaded area of the training ghetto...
If you aren’t on Twitter, get online and join in with things like #chat2lrn, #lrnchat, #ldconnect and more. Follow people who are working in or talking about learning, education, information, design, the sector you are working in, and more... It’s such a hugely powerful tool and a great way to extend your professional network as well as your learning network.
Kyla Lacey-Davidson is digital & online learning officer at the Stroke Association and the winner of a special Charity Learning Award for her Outstanding Contribution to the Charity Learning Consortium community. The Stroke Association is a charity. They work directly with stroke survivors and their families and carers, with health and social care professionals and with scientists and researchers. They campaign to improve stroke care and support people to make the best recovery they can
