'Just for me' learning

You've probably heard of 'just in time' learning. It's a form of learning that is accessed at the point of need. A worker requires additional knowledge or skills to meet the challenges of a new job role and receives it there and then. We used to call it on the job training. 'Just in time' is often seen as a counterpoint to the standard, traditional 'just in case' curriculum where learners are provide with everything they might possibly need, in the event that someday, some of it will be useful. It is rather a hit and miss strategy and it's not very effective. Just in time learning now takes precedence. This economic delivery of content has been described as bespoke learning, and is the core of personalised learning in many organisations. Recently, there has been a shift to deeper forms of personalised learning, especially in the context of personal learning tools such as smart phones and social media. 'Just for me' learning epitomises this ethos.

Every employee should have the opportunity to personalise their learning, and now organisations are recognising this necessity. Learning and development departments are beginning to provide workers with the means to learn independently and in a self-determined manner. But we can go much further. Learning and Development professionals recognised long ago that employees learn better when they are motivated. Learning tends to be deeper when people are interested in the subject matter, and even more so when it relates directly to their work. Most importantly, learning is most effective when it is accessed at a convenient time, and in a convenient place. So 'just for me' learning can be more effective than just in time learning, because it is tailored more directly to individual needs. But where are we heading with this trend? What is the ultimate learning in organisations? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome onto the stage.... 'just enough' learning.

Photo by Japanexperterna.se on Flickr


'Just for me' learning by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.