With the recent passing of the legendary Yogi Berra on September 22, 2015, it only made sense to stop and take a moment to think back on some of his famous quotes.
At age 90 when he passed, Berra lived a full life. And during that life, he surely left his mark. While Berra was obviously a phenomenal baseball player, he was even better known for his non-sensical one-liners. While they’re good for a chuckle, they also have some important wisdom beneath the surface.
Let’s look at a few Yogi Ber-isms and how they relate to the eLearning environment.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
At the surface level of this Yogi Berra quote, there’s merely a funny contradiction. But when you think about the message here in an eLearning context—there’s actually some truth to the idea.
When designing a course, it’s important to have a clear map of where the course will go. Some eLearning designers use a more formal storyboarding process as a way to map out the course, while others simply pull together a rough sketch. Regardless, the client’s objectives have to be front and center throughout the clearly planned course—because like Berra said, without direction—you might get lost (and so will your learners.)
“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
Berra may have been talking about baseball when he said this, but there’s certainly a place where too many “wrong mistakes” happen within an eLearning course, too.
We’ve talked before about how mistakes can be a powerful learning experience for trainees—especially when presented in scenarios. But when mistakes happen as a result of poor presentation, difficult course navigation, or large chunks of material—those are wrong mistakes. Make too many, and learner retention rates suffer.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
The times are changing, and yes, the future ain’t what it used to be. In the training environment, changes have come in the form of training presentation—with more and more companies transitioning to eLearning and mLearning formats.
There is definitely still a place for blended and traditional learning formats, but these technology-aided formats give increased flexibility to trainees and teams who are bound by hectic schedules. When learners can reap the benefits of conversation and feedback while also getting hands-on experience with tools and software, they get the best of both worlds.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
In an eLearning context, we like to think of a fork in the road as branched scenarios. Letting learners take different forks in the road to see the cause and effect relationship of decision-making is an extremely powerful way to learn situation-based application.
Think of this in a sales call context: If a learner chooses to respond in what a customer views as a negative tone, the learner can see how “taking that fork” impacted the conversation and how they could improve upon the behavior next time.
“You can observe a lot just by watching.”
Observing, watching—whatever you want to call it—it’s a major part of training. A great eLearning course shows instead of tells, which activates the mind’s ability to observe and learn. Using real-life situations to illustrate processes lets learners observe—but great eLearning goes one step beyond to then let the trainee experiment on his or her own.
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
While we can all agree that pizza is more delicious than eLearning, most people can also agree that moderation is good in both cases.
For some time now there has been the concept of “chunking” eLearning, which distills content into smaller learning moments. Especially as we continue to shift toward on- demand and just-in-time learning, content that is quick and pointed is paramount.
With as fast paced as our lives have become, learners don’t have the appetite for long drawn-out courses any more. Keeping content focused and to the point will greatly impact interest and learner retention.
“I guess I’ve got a smart wife.”
Okay, so this doesn’t have a ton to do with eLearning philosophy, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
Yogi Berra’s Wisdom Transcends
While this American legend will be dearly missed, his wisdom and humor lives on and brings insight to a variety of perspectives. Within the eLearning environment, Berra’s wisdom transcends and helps good eLearning become great.