Whatsapp as a Learning Tool

A learning format worth exploring

We explore creative formats from the world of learning. Expect a note from us every other Thursday. Created by TeamLogiQ.

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📰 What’s the format?

“Radical Listening”, a Whatsapp-based course by Acumen Academy & Health in Harmony.

Duration: 4 weeks - (10 hours of content)

The course aims to honor and value the knowledge of communities whenever you’re seeking to create solutions from their knowledge. To achieve this, they invite you to unravel the meaning of listening, guaranteeing that 3 large layers are taken into account: 1) Being present, 2) Listening to other people and 3) Listening to a group.

The course is created in a a way that anyone with access to a cell phone and an internet connection once a week can take it. It’s self-paced, but has a start and end-date.

🗂 What are the features?

A Clear Roadmap

Acumen Academy provides clear expectations at each step of the way. How much time will it take to complete a task. Which milestones have you accomplished. Where are you in the course’s big picture… They use emojis to help you visualize your progresss.

Missions/Challenges

The course takes advantages of the social components of Whatsapp to drive engagement:

• Videos and Audio

• Polls (used to measure your progress/test yourself)

• Visual Recaps through simple summaries you can “star” (or save)

Group Chat

The course invites you to two different Whatsapp channels: the Individual chat (where you receive all the lessons via a Bot), and a group chat that’s open for comments once a week. This gives you a sense of “Hey, I’m not doing this alone!”

💡 Why is it effective for learning?

This learning experience included three interesting characteristics:

• Accessibility

• Guided Practice

• Storytelling

Accessibility

I'm from Guatemala, a country were entire villages survive on two or three dollars a day. Yet, cell phones are everywhere. In 2022, mobile connections surpassed the country’s population. This makes you think about accessibility. Whatsapp is a widely available medium that most people are already using. This course meets them where they are.

Guided Practice

This course is not about passively absorbing content. It incorporates some guided exercises to help you practice as you go.

• To practice “being present in order to be a better listener”, they share with you a voice note with simple instructions to follow

• To practice what you recently learned, they prompt you to observe a specific dynamic and share your lessons learned

Storytelling

The course featured some external guests with experience on the topic at hand. They briefly shared their stories in short audio notes that made you feel like you knew them.

Even Better If…

• You give learners more choice. You could do this by designing a non-linear learning path were the learners’ answers to specific questions determine where they go next.

• Feedback loops are embedded more frequently throughout the course.

🏷 Summary

Cognitive load can arise from intrinsic sources (the thing to be learned) or extraneous sources (the learning process or distractions), this format is effective because it’s simple and accessible. It reduces friction and makes it very easy to get started.

➡️ Coming Up Next

Speaking about giving learners choices and embedding feedback loops in your design, coming up next we’ll explore a game with millions of users that starts with a single, simple question… Stay tuned… 🔍