Fostering life long learners with Eva Keiffenheim

About Eva Keiffenheim

Eva Keiffenheim left teaching in Summer 2020 to become an EDUpreneur. Her life’s mission is to make education fairer and better for as many learners as possible. She is a writer, and helps research, consult, and implement education projects. She also co-founded Speed Up, Buddy!, an NGO to support first-gen students. She shares in her weekly newsletter of +3K subscribers, Learn Letter, where she shares useful tools and resources.

Key takeaways:

• Eva shares the three things that organisations can do to help their employees become lifelong learners:

1. Provide opportunities for continuous learning. This might be a formal learning pathway that is made up of courses or collections of resources. It could be structured stretch projects, peer groups or suggested workplace learning activities.
2. Leverage from powerful technologies. Studies have shown low completion rates come from limited engagement, e.g. just watching videos, and there are plenty of EdTech solutions that help provide more active learning, for example Maven, a cohort-based course (CBC) platform. Ultimately, adopt technologies that can help facilitate ways of engagement, e.g. testing, leaderboards and immediate feedback.
3. Make space and time to learn and practice. It helps learners get into the flow of absorbing information, and gets them out of the ‘content consumption’ trap. The main thing is to make sure that learners have enough time to repeatedly practice what they’re learning.

• The human brain’s ability to recall information diminishes, and it’s no flaw of human memory, so include this fact in your corporate learning designs. E.g. revisit the topics, don't just lecture!
• Good grades alone don't reflect acquired learning. Having just a visual dashboard and tracking time spent are not enough. Consider accountability systems and ways to embed motivation within your learning platform.
• Encourage learning exchange and the concept of learning in public through feedback and connections. For example, share your notes or internal blogging.

Chapters:

• (00:00:00) Introduction.
• (00:02:50) The three things organisations can do to help their employees become lifelong learners
• (00:05:41) Why it’s important to schedule in time for learning
• (00:07:47) Key strategies to practise new skills in the corporate environment
• (00:09:12) Leveraging technology to acquire new skills
• (00:13:36) The role of dashboards and measuring real progress
• (00:20:28) How to make the most out of note taking
• (00:22:27) Applying cognitive science to your learning design
• (00:27:22) Eva’s key advice to L&D experts

Links from the podcast:

• Connect with Eva on LinkedIn
• Eva’s Website
• Follow Eva on Medium
• Find more about Roam Research  
• Read the book Make It Stick
• Read the book Atomic Habits
• Do a course on Maven
• Do the course Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects with Barbara Oakley