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CGS Learning Team

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December 11, 2018

Too Much Content and Too Little Time: The Importance of Curation for Learning

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Too Much Content and Too Little Time: The Importance of Curation for Learning

Let’s face it – there is just so much content out in the world wide web.  Every minute of every day, there are 72 hours of learning added to YouTube alone.  Some estimates indicate web content will increase by 500%, so the challenge of sifting through tons of content isn’t going away. But what about the quality? Certainly there are large pockets of cat memes and double rainbow videos, but there is also valuable information that can complement traditional learning and development.  The trick is you have to organize the content in a way that is valuable – curation is proving to be a critical skill for learning teams.

Why curation matters

In a world of content overwhelm, the sense-makers who organize information create massive value for their organizations.  These days, the average learner only has 24 minutes a week to spend dedicated to learning, so they need someone to show them an easy path through the content jungle.  Here’s how curation can bring even more benefit to your existing L&D programs:

  • Faster to market – it’s faster to pull existing content than it is to develop from scratch.  You can get great content to your learners in a fraction of the time.  
  • Low cost development – if you find great content, the development cost is near zero (other than the context you add).
  • Easy to find – if you are a skilled searcher, it’s pretty quick to put together curriculum on a specific topic (e.g. curation – can you feel the Meta learning going on here?).
  • Great for reinforcement – pulling together bits of micro learning helps you keep people learning over time in order to combat the forgetting curve.
  • Increases engagement – learners get to pick and choose from a variety of sources and formats increasing the likelihood that they come back for more.

Types of curation

Curating is more nuanced than you might imagine.  It’s not as simple as pulling together a bunch of links and emailing those around.  Think about a great museum exhibit.  Pieces are thoughtfully gathered, put together in a logic progression and come together in a cohesive story.  The same goes for learning curation and there are five different models of content curation

  1. Aggregation – finding and bringing similar content together.  You add value to the learner by putting it all in one place.  Here’s another Meta learning moment.  Ready, Set, Curate it! is a book bringing eight different authors together on a specific topic.
  2. Distillation – bringing a focused view, getting back to the basics of a topic or adding simplicity.  In some cases, a simple top 10 ranking or the top tools for learning provide distilled and focused subsets of larger topics. 
  3. Elevation – identifying a higher level trend in the midst of a volume of content.  If you have an internal social media platform, elevation would include spotting the global or regional trends in the conversation.
  4. Mashup – combining two disparate topics together to communicate a unique perspective.  A famous mashup has a curious origin story and demonstrates how different the two topics can be from each other.
  5. Chronology – organizing historical information to showcase how a topic evolves over time.  To learn more about the web, the Evolution of the Web outlines what has happened over time. 

New skills required

Curating content requires a new skill set for most L&D professionals. Harold Jarche articulates the importance of seeking (finding things, staying up to date and participating in knowledge networks), sensing (organizing content and knowing when something is valuable to a particular audience) and sharing (exchanging resources, ideas and experiences to colleagues).  Lumesse Learning shares six key skills for curation: Find (act like a historian), filter (be curious), grade (think about appropriateness), synthesize (join the dots), contribute (give context) and signpost (be a guide). 

These new skills are often found on digital marketing or knowledge management teams and are slowly making their way into learning and development.  They require a knowledge of the technology used to leverage intelligent automaton.  Learning and development teams need to build or acquire these skills to thrive.

Where you will get pushback (and what to do about it to get started)

  • But, our content is special!  Often content developers cling to the content they gave their heart and soul to create.  They are proud and don’t want to see it replaced by less customized content. 
    • Think AND not OR.  Identify the critical topics to focus their precious development time and then use curated content for commoditized topics (communication, IT security, etc.).  Work with developers to blend curated content as a way to complement and enhance their crafted materials. 
  • Those content libraries cost a ton of money!  Companies often have a large supply of external content, but they are not getting maximum value from the investment.
    • Spend time matching content with specific needs and organize the content in a way that meets learning needs.  Look at vendor road maps before you purchase to make sure they are investing in staying up to speed with emerging topics.  Look to freemium content and user generated content as well, given the lower cost.
  • The adoption is so low – is it worth it?  Sometimes all that content sits unused so it’s natural to question the value. 
    • Curation is not just about volume.  The distillation and filtration of content is more important than sheer volume.  Make the experience social through @mentions on internal social media.  See what employees are sharing with each other and leverage the trending data from your learning “record store.”
  • It takes too much time to curate!  Speed comes with experience, but it’s hard to get going initially when the world of content is so vast.
    • Focus on building a habit of searching for content that matches a specific purpose or learning need.  Leverage technology where possible like Feedly, Scoop.it, Pocket, Curata, BundlePost or other tools.  As Donald Clark puts it, “If you’re trying to do all your curation by hand, you’re making a mistake.  You need technology to help you.”  Bring in subject matter experts to help review for relevance. 
  • What about copyright laws?  This is a strong point and it is important to curate responsibly. 
    • Learn the requirements for key freemium sources (e.g. YouTube, Ted, HBR, etc.).  Link to original sources and don’t forget about the images.  It’s worth it to learn best practices in this area. 

With so little time available for learning, L&D teams must organize their content in ways that engage learners in the most efficient manner possible.  They want their content optimized in a way that’s always asking, “What is the best resource for me right now?” It’s your job to answer the call.

What are your favorite content curation tools? How do you make it easy for your team to absorb content on the go?

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Written by

CGS Learning Team

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enterprise learning & development 2022 report