Learning in bite sizes

So-Young Kang —Contributed photo

For many companies, training and retraining staff to upskill, reskill and keep them abreast of latest developments in their fields and state-of-the-art technologies are necessary to remain agile, relevant and responsive to their clients’ changing requirements.

But training and retraining are usually costly, often requiring travel, board and lodging and related expenses. And the benefits are uncertain.

As many people who have attended seminars and conferences know, participants drift in and out after the first day, returning just to collect the certificates of attendance or participation.

There is also the matter of how engaging the discussions are, no matter how colorful the PowerPoint presentations are. How much can people actually learn or consider useful?

So-Young Kang, founder of Awaken Group, a multidisciplinary transformation design firm, knows quite well the challenges of those sessions. She has been a frequent presenter and resource person.

Spun out of Awaken Group, Gnowbe is a “movable” training program that can be conducted anywhere, anytime—even 24/7—that does not require PowerPoint presentations.

Kang and her team created Gnowbe to look for a way to digitize and scale experiential workshops, coaching and soft skills training. They anticipated the rise of the mobile workforce, the need for lifelong learners and a greater focus on skills. They aimed to offer bite-sized content anytime, anywhere to meet the needs of those workers.

Gnowbe sprang out of this goal. The Awaken team looked “for a solution that was participatory and empowered people to take ownership of their learning experiences. They wanted to replicate the powerful face-to-face transformative learning experience in digital form. Gnowbe was created to empower content creators, thought leaders and trainers from organizations to scale experiential, participatory learning on mobile to develop real skills and change mindsets and behaviors.”

It created a new digital trainer that “moves learning from just ‘knowing’ to ‘learn-by-doing’ and ‘learn-by-teaching,’ which is the ultimate in learning design.”

Learn at your own pace

As designed, instead of having people sit together in one room listening to experts and resource persons for several hours each day, trainees can learn at their own pace and take on only what they can handle at any given time. In other words, instead of swallowing new ideas in one sitting, learners take small bites of the new knowledge offered to them.

“Humans can only take in bits of information,” says Kang, who identifies herself as the chief energizer of Gnowbe. “It’s the most human way of learning.”

Gnowbe uses mobile technology in its instructional design to allow people to maximize the use of their time. Trainees can upskill or reskill even as they do their regular jobs.

Kang says companies can save from 60 to 80 percent in training costs by using the Gnowbe program.

The program is also scalable to the demands of the client – from giant corporations to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises – and is “very affordable”.

Gnowbe, Kang says, is a way to constantly improve people’s lives. It also helps develop digital confidence and competence in users.

Although majority of current clients are corporations, Kang says the Gnowbe training software can also be used in the educational setting to help teachers be better in their job. The software may also be used by almost all age groups, from seven to 80 and beyond.

Software users can access Gnowbe’s microlearning library to update, refresh or expand the program.

Impact evaluation and assessment tools are built into the software so companies will know if they are achieving their goals.

Kang, who was honored as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2014, adds that data collected by Gnowbe will also show if people are struggling and in need of more time to learn, or if opportunities should be created for their improvement.

Features incorporating artificial intelligence may soon be added, particularly for data analytics for greater customization of the software.

Kang says managing Gnowbe is much easier than conducting Power Point presentations. And everything that is in PowerPoint presentations can be translated into Gnowbe.

With its flexibility, adaptability, portability and ease of use, Kang believes Gnowbe will replace PowerPoint presentations.