A Guide for Online and Blended Benefits Specialist Initial Trainings
Many people today are required to do online professional development or training. Others fall into it or are coerced with some gentle arm twisting. Sound familiar? If so, read on.
Online learning is part of a larger ongoing need for continuing professional development. Today, it is more the exception than the rule that you can stop learning after settling into a job. Most of us have a professional obligation to continue to explore emerging trends, techniques, and best practices along with maintaining our knowledge of policies, programs, and services – especially true for benefits specialists. This is one reason why online learning, of many forms, is growing in popularity and impact around the world.
Online learning is appealing due to increased access to technology, benefits of just-in-time, self-paced education, and decreased implementation costs. On the other hand, many questions and growing pains are associated with this shift. Learners have a wide variety of experience and comfort with e-learning tools and the idea of learning online in general. In online learning environments, the expectations instructors have for learners and learners have for their instructors and other learners, are constantly changing and being redefined. It is hard for people with less experience and comfort with online learning to cope with these moving targets.
In hopes of helping you better understand how to improve your online learning experiences, this article identifies learning strategies and best practices identified by two of our training experts, Stephanie Drum and Megan Koch. Both Stephanie and Megan have experience in providing online learning to benefits specialists statewide. ERI has provided training and technical assistance for nearly 25 years with design and development of online learning beginning in 2007.
I had a conversation with Stephanie and Megan about their trainings, focusing on four main questions:
• What works?
• What doesn’t work?
• How do you know when things are going well?
• How do you know when things are not going well?
This article distills their responses into five points that may not seem surprising. In fact, much of what they shared is common sense. However, if these five basic guidelines are followed, you will get much more out of online trainings.
1Be Engaged
This seems like a no brainer, but engagement is the single most important indicator of online learning success. Successful online learners have an engaged attitude toward learning and demonstrate a commitment to retaining information and applying it to their job. You can’t be a passive consumer in online learning and expect to get results. Make your time online meaningful. Don’t just go through the motions. Engage with the content and always push yourself to make meaningful contributions to discussions and attempts at assignments. Ask questions, read other people’s contributions, and respond with your ideas and questions. Take advantage of the time you have to consider and craft your responses to questions. Many people don’t like to speak up in face-to-face classes, but online you have the opportunity to choose your words and ideas carefully before posting.
2Make a Plan
Online learning is new to many people and requires different approaches than face-to-face education. If you are not familiar with learning online, you will need to be disciplined and focused on achieving your learning goals. Choose a learning environment that works for you. Get rid of distractions, resolve computer or technology problems, and be prepared to learn!
When starting online courses, look at the agenda or syllabus and plan out (schedule) how you will meet the requirements and goals of the course. Time is always an issue in online learning as there can be a lot of reading and writing. People think of online learning as a time saver, but the time it saves has more to do with not traveling and being able to learn on your own schedule. It still takes planning and effort. Also be really clear with your supervisor about the expectations of the training. Make sure you understand them as well. At the end of the day, this is about personal responsibility. You are in charge of building your own knowledge, the instructors and materials are just there to help facilitate that process.
3Be Proactive
Technical issues can, and do, arise in online learning. Don’t sit on your hands. Contact you instructor as soon as something doesn’t work for you. Saying “the site didn’t work” is no excuse. You have to be proactive in online learning and part of that is navigating technical challenges. Your instructors and the support staff are there to make sure you get materials and have certain learning experiences. They can’t help you if they don’t know you need assistance. If you find yourself getting bogged down, contact someone!
4Don’t Feel Alone
It can be easy to feel like you are all by yourself doing an online training. Remember there are others doing the same thing at the same time. If you are in a training with forums, regularly check and see what others are doing and engage with them. You can help each other learn more in the process. One tip: add a picture to your profile. It makes a surprising difference to be in a course where you see a face next to a post, and not a random place holder. It reminds us that we are actually learning with and from other people! If you don’t feel connected with your instructor or other learners, find out why.
5Don’t Expect to Know Everything
This can be uncomfortable for people. The initial benefits trainings ERI is involved in are meant to be introductions that don’t go into great depth. The field of benefits is so large you could take trainings for years and still not learn everything. Stephanie mentioned that she “has been at this job for seven years and learns something new every week if not every day.” Since these trainings are designed to build a foundation of knowledge and skills that will help benefits specialists learn and find what they need to do their jobs in the future, learners should not expect to learn everything they will need to know right away. Experience is a large component of being a good benefits specialist, as is being able to learn and seek new information in order to assist clients.