My name is John English and I currently work as a Senior eLearning Developer at Poppulo. My career started as a trainer and an instructor purely delivering live, classroom based training. When I started working in a corporate tech environment, it was clear to me that you couldn't get everyone in a room all the time, you couldn't rely on yourself as your key training aid and people wanted to learn when it suited them and choose the content that related to them. It was immediately clear to me I needed more innovative ways of delivering training, without a trainer and to leverage tech. I needed to learn new skills to create learning experiences that would suit the constantly changing learner, not just suiting my strengths and preferred delivery style.

5 years later, I have completed 2 courses in eLearning with Flex Labs and I'm fully equipped to design, deliver, assess and evaluate truly blended learning programs. My focus has shifted from "Training" to "Learning. I am now responsible for leading projects in Customer and Staff learning. We use webinars, videos, eLearning courses, AMA sessions, social learning, tasks and projects all to create learning solutions that suit the needs of our learners.

Flex Labs taught me a framework and a methodology around how to approach a complex learning need. To choose your solution after understanding the problem and then how to start to build out that solution. To consider a Micro or Macro approach. Iterate and collaborate and always assess and evaluate what you put out to your learners.

The idea of a "Learning Ecosystem" was the most interesting to me on the courses and building this out for new hires that start at Poppulo was my favourite and best achievement since taking the course. We digitised our staff onboarding process, focused on facilitation ahead of live delivery, content curation instead of creation and included social learning elements and in many ways emulated how the Flexlabs courses are delivered. Due to COVID 19, many companies have been scrambling to move to online learning solutions, for customers, for L&D and for onboards. Our work in creating this self-sustaining learning ecosystem meant we were ahead of the curve and felt zero impact on our onboarding process and learning offerings.

I don't know what the next 5 years hold, but "in times of change learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists". Keep learning!

If you'd like to learn more about the eLearning Essentials course, which is running again in October 2020, please visit our course page here.