Applying K-12 Education Tips to Adult Learning

Wouldn’t it be great if creating adult learning were as fun as creating lesson plans for kids? Throw in some naptime, a few snack breaks and a catchy song about the alphabet, and you’re done, right? While I wouldn’t recommend asking your employees to memorize songs, there are some K-12 educational strategies that you can apply to adult learning too.

Assessments: Summative vs. Formative

A standard way of assessing how much a learner has learned is to use summative assessments, tests conducted after a unit or certain time period. But you can also include formative assessments. These types of assessment are designed to support learning during the learning process.

Examples of formative assessments used in middle school classrooms include having students make lists or use graphic organizers to show they grasp the connections and relationships between concepts. In an online training course for adults, you could include knowledge checks throughout an e-Learning course, instead of—or in addition to—a comprehensive quiz at the end. A drag and drop question would be a great way to replicate this type of list-making formative assessment.

Creative Reinforcement

Browsing Pinterest for K-12 education tips is another great way to find ideas you can implement in online training for adults. For example, one teacher has a bulletin board for ideas that “stuck” with students each week. The students write on a sticky note what they learned and stick it to the board. Obviously, sticky notes don’t work for online learners, but what about a weekly discussion reflecting on the training that you moderate through your learning management system’s discussion board feature?

Classroom teachers have lots of tricks for keeping elementary students’ attention that you might find handy for your adult learners. Share in the comments any techniques that you use!

Subscribe to the Lectora® e-Learning Blog for more e-Learning strategies, free resources and product news.