I’ve said this in numerous posts before - learning is a key component of our activity at Ditto Sustainability; it changes behaviour, it improves personal and business performance, and it drives success across our customer base.
Learning has, and always will be, an important and integral part of our platform, Rio.
Previously, we charged a subscription fee for access to our sustainability and ESG related learning - hours of CPD accredited content which we are constantly adding to and growing; but back in March, in light of so many people being locked down and working from home, we thought it was important to open up learning opportunities to more people, we wanted to engage with more learners and offer more content, we wanted people and business to be more sustainable through learning and engagement.
We moved from Rio Learn to Engage.
Learning within Rio, has very-much been focussed on individual learners, undertaking individual content - usually eLearning modules in their traditional form. Rio Enage provides a free range of our CPD accredited content, including eLearning modules, webinars, tutorials and seminars; its aim is to support, educate and engage people in learning.
To ensure the best engagement in learning, it needs to best-reflect individual learning styles, with the VARK model being used to identify four types.
V = Visual - this type of learner processes information through charts, graphs and imagery
A = Auditory - this type of learner learns best when information is spoken
R = Read (and write) - this type of learner enjoys reading and learns through written words
K = Kinesthetic - this type of learner prefers to “take part” and experiment
Our individuial learning content taps into most, if not all of these. We use visual elements, animation and video (V), and make use of voiceover (A). On-screen prompts, text and reading resources (R) support the content online and through offline reading, and we build in interactions, games and quizzes (K) to enhance the learning.
Most of us will learn through all VARK channels, but we will probably have a preference. You can often spot learning styles in conversations with people.
“I see what you mean” is a usually a visual learner
“I hear what you say” an auditory one
"Let me write that down" - someone that learns through reading and writing
"I will give that a go later" - learns by doing
See if you can spot learning styles in the next conversation you have with someone.
To support different learning styles, Rio Engage will grow its content over time to enhance and increase our eLearning offering, support the development of game-based content and more animations; we will also include reading materials, quizzes, webinars and other online events. If you have not yet seen it, check out our new Desertification Island Discs offering.
In training, learner engagement makes all the difference between merely undertaking the learning content and gaining knowledge from it. For learners within your business to flourish, they must engage in learning personally on a cognitive, emotional and social level. By engaging on every level, their training is more likely to lead to improved skills and knowledge to be applied directly in their roles at the workplace.
For example, when learners are truly engaged in sustainability, they are more likely to improve and change their behaviours. That, in turn, means that they will be more focused and productive, adding more value to the organisation becoming more sustainable, as a whole.
Our Engage component of Rio, is currently undertaking some exciting developments, to bring more LMS-like functionality to the platform. The strength of Rio Engage lies in its simplicity of delivering content without any of the complexity which comes with lots of learning management systems, and soon the option to serve-up content in more ways will be available.
Learning paths and easy-access to learning programmes will be a great addition to the platform.
Whilst completely free for the individual learner, Rio Engage is also available with additional reporting and analytics. There is a small monthly fee to enable the reporting dashboard for organisations to be accessed through one mentor account. The annual cost is far cheaper than most paid-for learning management systems. Check out this flyer for further information.
In addition to the core learning content; we can provide tailored versions so that they are better-suited to your organisation, and for complete alignment, our bespoke development ensures the learning is created with your organisation in mind.
Check out our new showreel to see some examples of the content that we produce.
In addition to free content, we also have additional learning that you can “add on”; this includes our popular Resourceful: waste programme, helping you to be waste-smart; and we are excited to soon be launching the IEMA Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management. Please check out a recent blog on this for more details.
If you have not yet signed up to Rio Engage, please do so using the button below.
If we’ve all learnt something during recent lock-down months, it is that online learning is easy to access and makes a great and sustainable alternative to face to face events; it is certainly here to stay and will certainly become more of the “norm” in the future.
Maybe make Rio the learning (and data) platform for your organisation? It could be the only place your people need to go to for sustainability and ESG-related engagement.
Please do contact me to discuss...