Fail. There aren’t many words in the English language which evoke such strong negative emotions. However, I and others like myself (and by “others like myself,” I really just mean me again, but with imaginary support) really love the word “fail”. I love the way it feels just to say it, and I do. Repeatedly. Until I’m forcibly made to stop. But, despite my love of the word “fail”, I hate to fail. And I hold no monopoly here; according to well documented adult learning principles, most adult learners don’t like to fail. And, more to the point, adult learners don’t like to fail publicly. Nobody does…
Hark! Here comes eLearning, shroud in a long, flowing cape, draping it around us and hiding our failures from the masses. What a hero!
Even though nobody likes to admit it, optimists are sometimes correct. In this case, they hit the nail on the head when they said failure is an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and carries with it the seeds of success. Failure is a powerful learning tool, especially when paired with the opportunity to correct your mistakes. Behaviors are changed, objectives are met, and retention improves. I mean, can you think of a better way to not repeat past mistakes than a hard fought, well- earned blow to the ego? I certainly can’t. A well designed eLearning course provides learners with a safe arena to fail, repeatedly, if necessary, but most importantly, it lets you fail privately. And then it lets you succeed.
With the coming of the New Year, TrainerTainment will be proudly launching its new service, The Virtual Classroom. Our simulated environments and situations will place the learner in real-life scenarios where their decisions will have an impact on the outcome of the course, where mistakes are possible, perhaps even likely. Their ego may take hits, but will do so with nobody around, so it can be denied later, leaving the ego unharmed, if not stronger for the wear. And performance will be improved, which is awesome, because if it wasn’t, we’d have almost completely, but not entirely successfully, failed.
Be on the lookout for upcoming news and updates on the TrainerTainment Virtual Classroom.
We at TrainerTainment cordially invite you to come fail with us. You’ll be amazed at the success you achieve!
