3 Training Resources that will help you engage your students!

22 June 2023

As a trainer or educator, it’s crucial to stay updated on the latest training techniques, research, and technologies to effectively engage your students. Immersive learning experiences, such as augmented, mixed, and virtual realities, are becoming increasingly popular. In this blog, we’ll introduce you to three valuable resources that can help you navigate this new learning landscape and enhance your facilitation skills. These resources include The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended, and Hybrid Learning by Cindy Huggett, Play to Learn by Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp, and Learning That CLICS by Janet Ahn, Mary Slaughter, and Jon Thompson. Each resource covers a unique aspect of training, from facilitating in immersive environments to incorporating behavioral science into learning design. By incorporating insights and practical advice from these resources into your training programs, you’ll create engaging and effective learning experiences that leave a lasting impact on your students. So let’s dive in and discover how these resources can help you shine as a trainer in the exciting world of immersive learning!

The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended, and Hybrid Learning by Cindy Huggett

In her book, The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended, and Hybrid Learning, Cindy Huggett dives into the role of facilitators in immersive, blended, and hybrid learning environments. She shares cutting-edge insights and practical advice on how facilitators can create effective and engaging programs, regardless of the situation.

Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift from traditional classrooms to immersive learning experiences. This shift has brought about advancements in supporting technologies and techniques, including augmented, mixed, and virtual realities. Now, immersive, blended, and hybrid learning have become the new norm in training. Huggett walks us through the process of facilitating in each of these modalities, covering everything from the necessary technology to suggested activity modifications. Along the way, she provides real-life examples that showcase immersive, blended, augmented, virtual, and hybrid learning in action.

Play to Learn by Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp

You’ve probably seen how awesome games can be at capturing learners’ attention and helping them explore new skills and different perspectives. They’re super engaging and can really motivate and support learning. But how can you become a learning games superstar? That’s where Play to Learn comes in.

This book is all about bridging the gap between instructional design and game design. It’s written in a conversational style to boost your game literacy and strengthen those important game design skills. Throughout the book, Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp share real examples of both in-person and online games. They even provide an online game for you to try as you read. They’ll guide you in evaluating entertainment and learning games, so you can apply the best techniques to your own designs.

Play to Learn will also teach you how to:

• Connect game design with your business needs and learning goals.
• Test your game prototype and refine your design.
• Launch your game to a group of motivated and excited learners.

So, don’t just play around aimlessly. Think big and design your games with intention!

Learning that CLICS by Janet Ahn, Mary Slaughter and Jon Thompson

Learning That CLICS by Janet Ahn, Mary Slaughter, and Jon Thompson is all about introducing the CLICS framework, which is a practical and concise way to apply behavioral science to the art of learning design. It’s a framework that’s been created by learning practitioners for learning practitioners, so you know it’s grounded in real-world experience. With its five-step approach, the CLICS framework deepens analysis and boosts the chances of effective learning.

Let’s break down those steps:

• Capacity takes into account our brain’s cognitive capacity for learning, considering our current work priorities.
• Layering fills in any gaps in our knowledge and ensures we have a solid foundation before integrating new concepts.
• Intrinsic enablers focus on motivation and personal relevance, because let’s face it, those play a big role in our learning journeys.
• Coherence is all about making sure the concepts we’re learning fit together and relate to our past learning experiences.
• Social connections, such as peers, managers, and experts in our work environment, provide invaluable feedback and modeling that helps us learn and be effective.

Once we truly understand how our brains learn, we can conduct a CLICS analysis and make significant strides forward in our learning journey. It’s all about promoting lasting learning that sticks with us over time.

According to the authors, the key to achieving lasting learning lies in understanding our psychology and how we process, retain, and apply knowledge in our everyday work. It starts with grasping how our brains function—how they receive, process, encode, and recall information—the very essence of learning. Ignoring these realities makes it unnecessarily challenging to bring about behavior change on a large scale.

Each of these resources covers a unique aspect of training, from facilitating in immersive environments to incorporating behavioral science into learning design, and by incorporating insights and practical advice from these resources into your training programs, you can create engaging and effective learning experiences that leave a lasting impact on your students. So, whether you’re looking to facilitate immersive learning environments, incorporate game design into your training, or dive into the psychology of learning, these resources have got you covered. So, go ahead and explore these resources to become a superstar trainer and make the most of the exciting world of immersive learning!