TOMS is a company that sells apparel. What they do differently, however, is based on your purchase they give either the same product you purchased or another product to assist those in need. For example, when you buy a pair of shoes they provide a pair of shoes to someone who does not own shoes. This company is not thinking let’s brand the planet with our shoes, but rather let’s enable people to do more by putting shoes on their feet. With a comfortable pair of shoes, people can walk further, perhaps to school or to the hospital or to a job interview.
This is a great concept as long as the shoes being provided fit the wearer comfortably. If the shoes are too small or tight, the walk will be painful. If the shoes are too big, it can hinder the pace or trip up the wearer. TOMS needs to know about the feet in order to fit the shoe for maximum benefit.
In the context of education, providing material and courses without clear learning outcomes or without understanding the audience will be of no benefit to the learner. At Syspro, we provide different types of courses. We have modular courses which are aimed at resellers and super users. This audience needs to know the details, what happens “behind the scenes” in SYSPRO and what is the effect of turning options on or off. If the course only covered the how-to aspect of SYSPRO, the product support would be painful.
Our role-based courses are aimed at our end users. This audience needs to know how to do their day-to-day activities in the context of a business process. The courses are based on flow graphs, which show procedural steps, where information is coming from and where it is going to. The course meets the needs of the individual (what do I need to do?) and the business (why am I doing this?). An added benefit of these courses is that they highlight segregation of duties too. If the course included setup options and database details, the learners may get overwhelmed and get tripped up with all the extra information.
You should never feel discomfort in learning or make your learners feel uncomfortable. Learning needs to be like slipping on the perfect pair of shoes. The right fit provides you with the comfort of additional knowledge and the comfort of having the necessary tools to succeed at your tasks.
