Is The Trainer Responsible for a Student Learning?

Ant Pugh asks an interesting question:

Do you feel responsible for your learners and their development?

He spends the better part of that post making the case that yes, teachers, trainers and other educators are, in fact, responsible for whether the students learn or not. I tend to agree with him, to a point.

Yes, if we aren’t making the material relevant and educational enough to truly help those who wish to learn, that is absolutely on us. If the online learning tools are too difficult to use, confusing, or unclear and people aren’t learning anything from them, then yeah, again, that’s on us.

But the student has to bring something to the table too. I can take responsibility for the content and the presentation, etc. But if you don’t ever log in to the online learning tool, that’s on you. If you sit in a training class glued to your phone, and miss stuff, that’s on you. You’re not a six year old in first grade, you are, supposedly, a professional being given an opportunity to expand your skill set and learn new technology. If you choose to simply not even try, I’m not about to force you to. I’ve got plenty of work to do trying to meet my obligations to the people who really do want to learn. I’m not going to waste the time and energy to make something that is beyond my ability to change, into something I take responsibility for.

So, trainers, absolutely take responsibility to meet the needs of your students and do everything you can to design learning systems and content that make it easy for folks to learn from you. Students, just be willing to actually learn. Leave your distractions, your attitudes about your job and the tools you are learning, and your personal issues at the door and focus on learning. Deal?

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