5 Ways to Incorporate Peer Learning into Your Nonprofit's Learning Strategy
Peer learning is a great technique to use in your training programs because it encourages active participation and networking, ensures diverse perspectives are shared and considered, encourages social and collaborative skills, and so much more.
That’s why on this episode, I’m sharing five ways you can incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit's learning strategy.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
00:58 Should you add peer learning to your training programs?
03:01 The benefits of peer learning
04:16 Five ways you can incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit's learning strategy
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5 Ways to Incorporate Peer Learning into Your Nonprofit's Learning Strategy
Let's take a walk down memory lane…
Think back to a class in grade school. Things are running as smoothly as they normally do when the teacher delivers the worst news…
It’s time for a group project.
Cue the silent moans. Maybe not so silent ones, too. The dread. No one actually wanted to do a class project.
Can you remember a time like this?
I get it. I've been there, too.
But what if I told you that peer learning is actually effective?
When done well, peer learning can:
Improve learning outcomes.
Increase retention.
Build additional social skills beyond the “classroom”.
Encourage active participation and networking.
Ensure diverse perspectives are shared and considered.
Prompt participants to think about their own experiences and then share those experiences and their expertise with others so that everyone gets to benefit from that learning as well.
Allow your learners to bring specific context to the discussions.
Encourage social skills and collaborative skills, allowing your learners to build real relationships that go with them back into the workplace.
In fact, one American Psychological Association study found that those students who participate in peer learning performed better than 66% of those who were not involved in peer learning. Plus, we know how important social influence is in behavior change. So maybe there's something to this peer learning thing.
Newsflash, I think there is!
I design a lot of training programs for my clients that include peer learning. That’s why I’m sharing five ways you can incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit's learning strategy:
Design Synchronous Learning Experiences with Small Group Discussions
Create Smaller Learning Groups That Meet Between Synchronous Training Sessions
Create One-on-One Interactions for Personalized Advice and Tailored Skill Development
Pick one of these strategies or pick a few. All that matters is that you select the options that will work best for your learners and your environment.
Some of these strategies are pretty simple to implement and some require a bit more time and intentionality, but you won't regret it.
1) Design Synchronous Learning Experiences with Small Group Discussions
The first way to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy is through synchronous learning experiences with small group discussions.
This is probably one of the easiest ways you can bring peer learning into your training.
Anytime you have a synchronous learning experience planned, meaning you are bringing people together either in person or virtually, design some solid small group discussions. Here’s how:
Give them some questions to discuss.
Provide a scenario to work through together.
Ask them to create something together.
Yes, just like that dreaded group project.
Using this small group time inside of the larger group is so effective and it's so simple.
2) Use Cohorts For Longer Training Programs
A second way to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy is through cohort models.
If you have a longer training program, use cohorts.
Here's what I mean:
Let's say you're offering a six month leadership development program that includes three workshops, one every other month. The group that registers for that six-month program stays together for the entire six months.
That's what I mean by cohort. It's the same people.
You don't get to workshop two and allow new people to join. You're going to keep that group together and allow them to work through all six months together.
The relationships they will build in those six months will be so powerful, especially when you start to incorporate those small group discussions throughout those workshops.
3) Create Smaller Learning Groups That Meet Between Synchronous Training Sessions
The third way to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy is to create smaller learning groups that meet between those synchronous sessions, especially in cohort programs.
When you have a longer program like a six month leadership program, you can leverage the time between those sessions for peer learning.
Let's say that six month program has 30 people in it and they're all meeting together every other month for those workshops.
30 people is a lot.
Divide them into 10 groups of three and then on the off month when they don't have a workshop to attend, prompt those groups of three to meet to discuss something related to what they're learning.
You can use the same ideas that I shared for the synchronous small group discussions:
Give them some questions to discuss.
Provide a scenario to work through together.
Ask them to create something together.
Hopefully, there won’t be any fear of judgment or failure because it is that small group and they're building those relationships. And while we don't want that in a larger group, a larger group can be intimidating.
So this smaller group is a great way to use peer learning.
4) Create One-on-One Interactions for Personalized Advice and Tailored Skill Development
The fourth way to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy is a bit more complex and requires a bit more effort, but it's worth it.
One-on-one interactions such as mentors, job shadowing, and thought partners.
This requires more intentionality because you have to find the right mentor, the right person to shadow, or the right thought partner for your learners. And that might be difficult for a large group.
One way to simplify this is to ask alumni of the training program to come back and participate as mentors. One mentor can have two to three mentees to reduce the number of people you need.
While this is a little bit more complex than the other ideas that I've shared, the benefits are amazing.
That one-on-one interaction means your learners are getting personalized advice and personalized, tailored skill development.
And data has shown that mentoring, for example, can increase the likelihood of promotions, staff retention, and engagement.
5) Create an Online Learning Community for Learners to Connect Outside of the Synchronous Learning Environment
The final way to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy that I am going to share is online learning communities.
An online learning community provides a forum for learners to connect outside of the synchronous environment.
Let's say the learners are back at work, the training has ended, and they run into a challenge implementing what they learned. They can reach back out to their peers and ask for advice through an online learning community.
But online learning communities don't manage themselves.
Online learning communities require a lot of intentional planning. Plus, helping learners realize they can go to the online learning community to get support or answers may be a behavior change in and of itself.
So I love an online learning community, but I don't recommend it in every situation. It really depends on the organization and their capacity to manage the community, as well as the learner's willingness to participate in it.
I hope one of these ways to incorporate peer learning into your nonprofit’s learning strategy stood out to you and will be easy to implement in your organization.
When thoughtfully designed, peer learning is a simple way to extend the learning, personalize the experience, and build the relationships your organization needs to be successful.
For more resources on this topic, take a look at the Learning for Good Playbook. You can access it here.
To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 110.
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