Want to find out what people REALLY think about learning in virtual environments? Ask them.

Some recent research by Suzanne Dove, Patrice Torcivia Prusko and Jennifer Cutts, well-known scholar/practitioners in centres for teaching and learning and learning innovation in the US Edu sector have thrown up a few themes. Some are entirely relevant to workplace learning:

• Virtual events don’t meet their needs because “a lot of effort by event organizers to replicate an in-person experience in a virtual modality rather than reimagining the experience”
• Learner convenience wasn’t taken into account when scheduling.
• Learners told us that tailored opportunities to network with peers and alumni are important to understand ho to apply the learning in their career.
• People are looking for something customised to their own particular needs or goals. And beyond that, it seemed that how they spend their time is a way of reinforcing for themselves what their own values are.
• Everyone being more selective about “what I do, when I do it.”

For workplace learning the ideas of redesigning, personalising, and developing asynchronous support SHOULD be old hat. If you asked the people using your virtual environments, would you have the same responses?