Mistake-Driven Online Learning: 6 Tips To Reduce On-The-Job Injuries
It is natural to learn from your mistakes. As a matter of fact, this is the only way most people learn. Nowadays, many companies are leveraging mistakes in their online training to teach valuable real-world lessons. However, it is vital to ensure that employees do not associate errors with shame before embarking on such training. Instead, they must view mistakes as learning opportunities in order to get the most from the online training experience. After all, mistake-driven training provides employees with a risk-free setting to explore different actions and experience their consequences. This minimizes the risk of actual injuries. Let's look at how to reduce on-the-job injuries with mistake-driven online learning.
1. Use Scenarios To Test Employees' Reactions To Emergency Situations
Scenarios give employees the opportunity to mimic actions they would take in a real-world situation. During mistake-driven online training, give your employees an emergency problem to solve. For example, ask each employee what they would do if there is a fire on the far end of the facility and they are alone. Allow them to use their problem-solving skills to come up with solutions to this emergency. Doing so gives them a risk-free environment to make the wrong choices and uncover the consequences. This way, they will avoid repeating the same mistakes in real life. When employees make errors during online training, offer them an opportunity to repeat the scenario and develop their experiential knowledge. Repetition makes the training memorable and reduces instances of repetitive slip-ups.
2. Encourage Employees To Explain Their Decisions
When you give employees a scenario, for instance, chances are that not everyone will make the right decision. When everyone is done with the activity, let them explain their chain of thought and what led to their actions. In doing so, those who made incorrect choices will learn from those who made the right ones. Also, employees will learn how those who exhibited favorable behaviors went through the process. They will then follow their example when they’re on-the-job. Giving employees an opportunity to explain the reasons behind their choices also helps to identify errors in their decision-making process. This way they can retrace their steps and see where they went wrong and why.
3. Tell Stories To Create Emotional Immersion
One of the most critical elements of successful online training is storytelling. Storytelling can also be used in mistake-driven online learning. Instead of telling success stories, provide failure stories to help employees learn from the mistakes of the characters. The downside of telling success stories is that they often do not disclose the struggles characters went through. For example, what they had to endure in order to achieve their goals or overcome an obstacle. Such stories are ineffective for mistake-driven online learning because they do not show learners how to avoid mistakes. Stories that contain flawed logic or judgement, on the other hand, paint a vivid picture of how characters arrived at wrong conclusions. These stories inspire, as well as open the eyes of employees who might make similar mistakes.
4. Use Troubleshooting Guides
Rather than telling your employees how to complete tasks and solve problems, give them the tools and knowledge to do this practically. Troubleshooting guides allow employees to explore different causes of action. They also have the opportunity to devise their own solutions to real-life problems to reduce the risk of on-the-job injuries. Experiencing processes first hand not only aids in knowledge acquisition but also in retention. The mistakes made when using troubleshooting guides are memorable to employees. They are actually living through them and dealing with the negative repercussions. Hence, employees are keen not to repeat them. A troubleshooting guide or interactive online training tutorial enables them to immediately correct their mistakes and bridge knowledge gaps.
5. Give Feedback Early And Often
In mistake-driven online learning, it is important to offer feedback to online learners. Feedback enables them to know when they make a mistake and how to address the issue. It also points out to them why they made the error and what they could have done to avoid it in the first place. From the feedback given, employees can identify the behaviors they need to change, to ensure the safety of themselves and their co-workers. Positive criticism often motivates employees to perform their tasks better and avoid repeating mistakes that lead to accidents.
6. Use Simulations To Offer Them A Realistic POV
Allow employees to imitate real-life processes that are potentially hazardous. Keep assessing their progress to identify areas for improvement and habitual errors. For effective mistake-driven learning, limit the number of incorrect choices employees can make. Also, offer feedback to them when they stray too far from the answer to enable them to rethink their choices. Simulations are a great way to give them a realistic point of view without putting them in danger. For example, simulate a slip-and-fall accident to test how employees handle the situation and how quickly they get medical professionals involved. Do they wait too long to call 9-1-1, thereby endangering the health of the injured customer? Do they fence off the area so that no one else becomes injured? Are they able to remain calm and collected in stressful situations?
Using these 6 tips to conduct proper mistake-driven online learning for your employees. Rather than giving them boring notes to read, make the process active and engaging by creating a sense of immersion. Give them the opportunity to become emotionally engaged in the process through simulations, scenarios, and stories. Lastly, provide feedback frequently so that they can identify their mistakes and take steps to correct them immediately.
Errors are merely chances to continually grow and gather wisdom for the future. Fortunately, learning technologies give you the power to facilitate mistake-driven online learning in your online training course without making employees face the real world repercussions. Read the article 8 Mistake-Driven Learning Opportunities To Include In Online Training to discover the online training activities that transform mistakes into valuable learning opportunities.
