You have to learn how to get organized!

Ways to help learners get organized

You may be familiar with the pomodoro method for focusing on an activity for 25-minute periods interspersed with 5-minute breaks. This approach is interesting but does not make the alpha and omega of organization. Especially when embarking on a training course, but perhaps even more so when you want to self-study.

1 - Getting organized is not just a matter of time

Organization is of course a matter of planning and that requires having the necessary elements on hand. Here is a non-exhaustive list of information that can help with planning. If you are embarking on a self-study process, it is of course up to you to define all of these elements!

The deadlines and milestones of the training;
The activities to be carried out;
The (estimated) duration to be spent on them;
The way they are to be carried out (synchronous or asynchronous);
The expected productions;
The evaluation modalities;
Resource persons and contact information;
A list of other learners;
...

It seems to me that this planning closely links tools, activities, times, and places or spaces. For example, a commute time can be used to do some research, read an article, or jot down some thoughts on a topic, but you'll likely need a more structured setting to do some writing. Thus, the key is to find a setting (physical and temporal) that best meets the demands of the activities you have to conduct.

From experience, it is very effective to block out time slots in your schedule for training. The golden rule is then, "It is possible, if necessary, to move that slot but not to delete it."

2 - What can a training organization do to help participants get organized?

There are several things that can be done, more or less simple. Here are a few ways:

The first unavoidable element is to give a reliable calendar of all the training deadlines that specifies synchronous times, dates of evaluation and/or return of work, ... I also add the presentation of the tools offered by the institution whether it is the online platform, messaging, or other ...
It is relatively simple and very effective to give an indication of the time to be spent on each activity. This greatly facilitates participants in their organization and also gives them an indication of the expected production.
Another classic element is to set up a proactive tutoring to follow and accompany each learner and to boost those who fall behind, as presented in the article Companying more than 13,000 learners online is possible!
It is also possible to propose differentiated paths, depending on the time the learner can devote to the training by explicitly presenting it: 'if you have one hour for this training', 'if you have two hours', 'if you have half a day'...
There are several approaches relying on 'dashboards' for learners. While the Today tool allows you to regulate your learning activity in conjunction with the Google Classroom calendar, the University of Michigan offers the "My Learning Analytics", integrated with Canvas, with 3 views for students:
- The most used resources by the entire class (with an indication of which resources the user has already viewed);
- A timeline of activities completed and upcoming deadlines, with the ability for the learner to set goals;
- A view of the results of individual students in the class.
  
  2/3 of the students who had access to this tool reported that it impacted their learning strategy, organization and/or l/li>
- A self-directed workspace.
  
  This can be done on-site or remotely with a virtual classroom tool and groups or workshops. This can help participants block out time for training: "You gain in involvement what you lose in flexibility". This brings us back to the idea that time and place, even virtual, are closely linked when it comes to organization.
Finally, it can be very relevant to encourage each learner to analyze the organization put in place, the tools used, the difficulties encountered, the useful aids and those that were lacking, ... This can help each learner to identify indicators of his or her commitment, but it can also inspire the other learners in the class and give you ideas for improving your system. Why not propose this work during the course to correct the shot, if necessary?

3 - Can we recognize this work of organization?

If there is no official diploma to validate this capacity yet essential, we can look at the side of the openbadges and see that the collective BRAVO-BFC , proposes a series of badges for recognize and value the organizational strategies put in place by everyone, following the first containment. This collection of 6 self-assigned badges can be quite useful to close the reflective analysis proposed above by working on any of the following topics:

Time organization;
Tools used;
Physical space organization;
Regulation of one's activity.

100 times on the job...

As you can see , the panorama is vast and the solutions are very diverse, depending on your learning strategies. I am convinced that a regular reflective analysis of how it is organized and how it is evolving is definitely effective in helping us get better organized.

I only have to wish you good organization to learn even more and even better!"

References

Wikipedia, "pomodoro technique": https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technique_Pomodoro (accessed September 2, 2021)

Jacques Dubois, "Accompanying more than 13,000 learners online, it's possible! ", https://cursus.edu/12592/accompagner-plus-de-13000-apprenants-en-ligne-cest-possible (accessed September 2, 2021)

Thot Cursus, "Tool to help students organize their studies and activities," https://cursus.edu/22323/tool-tohelp-students-organize-their-studies-and-activities (accessed September 2, 2021)

University of Michigan, "My Learning Analytics," https://its.umich.edu/academics-research/teaching-learning/my-learning-analytics (accessed September 2, 2021)

BRAVO-BFC, "Openbadges for learning from containment, https://bravo-bfc.fr/2020/04/10/des-open-badges-pour-apprendre-du-confinement/ (accessed September 2, 2021)

Jacques Dubois, "Learning Strategies," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcZMiJM3U1w (accessed September 2, 2021)