How Canva trained 800 employees to fuel a $6 Billion growth spurt

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Pre & Post Learning
Pre & Post Learning

Plan learner journeys with our learning ecosystem in mind.

Plan learner journeys with our learning ecosystem in mind.

Pre Learning

For our adhoc learning requests

Before designing any learning, requests must first be vetted through the Learning Partner

@Intake Request⁠

form. Depending on our current needs, this request will then be added and prioritised in this list. Afterwards, Canva University will conduct a

@Learning Needs Assessment⁠

to determine the best format for learning delivery and to outline the objectives for that learning event.

Assessments

To provide a more tailored learning experience for our learners, an assessment should be conducted before the start of specific programs mentioned below so that instructional designers and facilitators can adjust the content to the current skill level. These assessments will also give us a good understanding of the impact of our programs when comparing with a post assessment if we administer one. Learning Ops will administer assessments before sessions either through the use of calendar invite reminders, Google Classroom workflows or using the LMS / LXP we eventually decide to go with.

Programs where this may be relevant

Program Name

Pre-assessment needed

Post-assessment needed

Objective of assessments

Responsibility

Pillars Workshops

Assessing people’s learning needs:

What do they hope to get out of the workshop

What are their current concerns around the topic area

How do they best like to learn and digest information?

What are the scenarios where they’d need to apply this topic?

2. Assessing people’s current skill levels and readiness to apply this information:

Basic knowledge test before the session to get people’s pre-conceived ideas

Where are they on the 5 steps towards change: Pre contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance

Assessing people’s new skill levels after completing the program

Follow up interviews with the person’s coach and team members

To determine whether knowledge has been retained

To identify the change in behaviour as a result of that

Knowledge retention: Learning Ops to administer the pre-assessment and post-assessment

Behaviour change: Coaches and team members to give participant feedback

There are no rows in this table

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Programs currently where this may not be as relevant:

Specialty Curriculum

Onboarding Program

Mentoring Program

Ideally the results from all assessments that we conduct can be located in one central dashboard whether it be in an LXP, in Google Sheets or some other tool. This way we can measure Learning Transfer and measure our participants’ retention of knowledge or application of knowledge dependent on the learning objectives of that learning event.

Assessment Tools

Assessment Tools

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Staying Connected with our Learners

Learning Needs Survey

Alongside the Culture Survey, Canva University will create an Annual Learning Needs Survey that will either be incorporated within the Culture Survey or act as its own standalone that will identify the skills that are needed. From there we can begin to formulate what's happening within the organisation, identify Canva's current challenges and determine what objectives we need to set to reach our organisational goals. This will then lead to an annual audit of all of our programs and learning ecosystem to pinpoint areas of weakness within our learning offerings and feed into our strategic priorities for the next year. Our form should follow fact based

research⁠

and provide us with answers to these questions:

Specialty Partnering

Alongside that, our Learning Partners will be working closely with Specialty Leads who will assess skills gaps in terms of people's crafts. This means our Learning Partners will support our Specialty Leads with learning principles, design and frameworks so that the specialty can build out their specialty specific technical skills. The data from specialty partnering may also lead to useful insight around company wide skills shortages or blockages which will be added to a Canva University development central repository.

Our Learning Ecosystem Model

⁠

We believe that learning never occurs in isolation, instead, there are different components that work together to create a holistic experience for our learners where learning is supported in a variety of ways. At Canva, we follow the 70:20:10 learning model developed by Morgan McCall, Robert Eichinger and Michael Lombardo where:

70% of learning occurs as people engage in informal learning processes such as watching others, participating in workplace routines and undertaking challenging tasks

20% arises from mentoring and coaching

10% is the result of formal courses and reading

This means that whenever we design any learning event, we have to also map out who else needs to be involved from the learning ecosystem to ensure that learning objectives are met whether this means a coach provides feedback on a certain skill that a coachee is learning or whether we have practice groups where people meet to work on certain skills together.

We'll use Sprout Labs Learning Ecosystem as a source of inspiration for Canva's Learning Ecosystem:

Gardener's – Learning from each other: This involves coaches providing feedback to their coachees, team leads providing feedback to their team members about their performance and leading conversations that encourage reflective thinking and continuous learning. Learning from each other also encompasses learning outside of the team or outside of Canva which could mean networking, job rotations, getting mentors outside of your specialty / group. Conversations are at the heart of learning from others so the more that people can question, debate, work out loud with different people will create an environment where people reflect and articulate what they've learnt.

Hothouses – Spaces to rapidly practice new skills: This involves getting real experiential learning meaning learners will get time to practise new skills and get feedback before they start on real tasks. The flipped classroom method reflects this idea where learners will do the formal learning in their own time and attend a live session to practice what they've theoretically learned.

Streams – Learning in the flow of work: Learning and work are no longer separate activities. Learning in the flow of work relates to situations where learners have to learn and upskill themselves in response to a new and challenging task that they may not have experienced. This requires clear goals to be set around the work, learning from peers and having the right access to knowledge and support.

Foundations – Knowledge supports: This is where our beloved training programs come in. A good learning ecosystem ensures learners have access to a range of job aids and resources.

How do we capture this?

With the introduction of an LXP, we will have visibility over a learner and their interaction with their learning activity by introducing:

Feedback from their coaches documented in the one space

Easily managed skills circles for practical activities

Reminders and post session follow ups e.g. cheat sheets, refreshers

Pre and Post – How does this apply to you?

Pre and Post – How does this apply to you?

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Pre and Post Learning Templates

Pre and Post Learning Templates

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👉 Next:

Remote Learning⁠

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