Effective scheduling for learning times: Calendar integration

Time is critical but limited resource

Managing time at the workplace gets even more difficult when personal development and learning get involved. While the need for professional education and lifelong learning is often highly appreciated by the modern workforce (e.g., [Field 2000, Jarvis 2014]), finding the actual time to invest is usually the most difficult task.

LinkedIn Learning found missing time to be the number one blocker for employees' learning progress. And also we at edyoucated frequently ask our learners about the most difficult parts of their learning process.

And the answers usually coincide: Finding the time to study!

Hence, time quickly becomes the most valuable but limited resource for learning success. Without its investment, it is hard to achieve impactful and sustainable results. Additionally, and in contrast to binge-watching Netflix series, learning most often is not a sprint, but rather a marathon: Learning on a regular and continuous basis is both easier and guarantees long-term success.

At modern workplaces, however, using shared online calendars, time vanishes quicker than ever: Colleagues can access your calendar to find free spots for meetings and other tasks. While this, in general, appears to be a positive development, it leaves little room for activities and duties that did not find their way into our calendars. And learning often ends up being such an activity!

As a consequence, we need to treat learning in the same way as every other important activity at work: We need to schedule learning times in our calendars!

Learning Calendar Development At edyoucated

Our team at edyoucated invests a lot of resources and research effort in supporting the learning process of our learners and as such also supports them in setting up a regular learning schedule. We want to establish learning and personal development as a fixed part of the everyday work life, and as such, it surely deserves a spot in your calendar alongside all your work tasks, meetings, and appointments.

Recent research has shown (cf., for example, [Baker 2016, Baker 2018, Andor 2018]) that time schedule, without integrating it into your calendar, has only little effect on the learning success. Hence, as part of our KAMAELEON research project, our product and research teams are working together with our colleagues at the University of Mannheim in order to develop an edyoucated learning calendar, which allows learners on our platform to integrate their learning schedule into their everyday work.

As of now, learners on our platform are able to set up and maintain their own learning schedule in a calendar, get reminders for their scheduled learning times and, most importantly, they are able to integrate their learning calendar into their calendar at work! And, of course, we support them with the process of setting up a great and sustainable learning schedule.

While we are firing up our development for further topics to support our learners we encourage you to waste no time and start scheduling regular learning times on your own. You'll be surprised by the difference it makes to integrate learning into your calendar.

Start boosting your learners engagament now

Now that we've explored the importance of setting up a structured training schedule, it's important to also consider how to keep learners engaged during the training process. Boosting learner engagement can help increase retention and ensure that the training is effective. But what are suiting strategies to increase learner engagement and keep everyone motivated?

Find out how to increase learner motivation!

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Literature

[Field 2000] J. Field. Lifelong learning and the new educational order. ERIC, 2000.

[Jarvis 2014] P. Jarvis. From adult education to lifelong learning and beyond. Comparative Education, 50(1):45{57, 2014.

[Baker 2016] R. Baker et al. A randomized experiment testing the efficacy of a scheduling nudge in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

[Andor 2018] M. Andor et al. Do planning prompts increase educational success? Evidence from randomized controlled trials in MOOCs

[Baker 2018] R. Baker et al. Does Inducing Students to Schedule Lecture Watching in Online Classes Improve Their Academic Performance? An Experimental Analysis of a Time Management Intervention