4 tactics for modern learning ecosystems

I just wrapped up my first course on 3-D graphic design and animation through a Florida-based company named School of Motion. These people are incredible for several reasons. The tactics they use can be used by anybody in the business of change management (whatever that means), corporate communications or corporate training. I want to walk through them here.

But first, here’s the finished project (that will never really be finished). The brief was to ship a 15-second animated video about camping tips for a fictitious client, Explain.ly. Their video needed to be 15 seconds long, ready for Instagram with a 1:1 aspect ratio, and we were to use the audio track provided to us. I did the modeling, composition and animation using the principles introduced to me over the past couple months.

Now on to the tactics.

Tactic 1: Use the best content creators.

Every great course needs a great teacher. For us, it was EJ Hassenfratz. He’s the man behind EyeDesyn, a website full of learning resources for 2D animators. He partnered with a great team at School of Motion to make three full months of material for our class. They made explainer videos, tip sheets, podcasts, and sent us more links to helpful web sites than I could possibly visit. The quality was excellent, the pace was fast and EJ’s enthusiasm was infectious.

Tactic 2: Give people assignments

People don’t just learn from sitting in front of a computer consuming hours and hours of digital content. At some point, you have to stumble through real projects to really appreciate why the instructor was telling you all they did. I found time and again the real value of EJ’s lectures when I found myself stuck or making the same mistakes repeatedly without knowing what caused them.

Tactic 3: Use teaching assistants

To build off tactic 2, this is where having someone around to help get you unstuck is extremely important. I would say of all the tactics I observed, having a teaching assistant was by far the most valuable. If you are building a learning ecosystem and you’re not using teaching assistants, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Lectures give you a foundation and assignments create opportunities for growth. The TA keeps everything moving along for the individual while the the instructor is concerned more with the class.

Tactic 4: Create tension

What do I mean by tension? We are all at different stages of our journey. No one can force us to learn. We ultimately have to make that decision for ourselves. However, great learning ecosystems know that while you can have a great system in place (see tactics 1-3), you have to cajole people into getting involved. That’s where having rich content like interviews with TA’s, contests, and endless tutorials come in. Moving people requires someone to make noise.