One evening, while assisting a colleague with a webinar, I realized how I needed to design the training I would offer to teach others how to use technology. Like most of us, my colleague didn’t make time to learn the tools they could regularly use for their work. In this case, WebEx. They were hesitant to click buttons and generally were not using the platform to its full potential. The hesitancy about what to click and the impending doom my colleague had imagined in their head were major barriers to using the tech tool.
So, I decided what people needed was a chance to be intentional about learning technology. During that opportunity, they needed a quick overview of the platform and time to play and make mistakes – just like in a sandbox. That’s how “Tech Sandboxes” were born.
Sandbox trainings quickly became a popular way to learn new technology in the organization. I learned a lot along the way, too. Initially, I started sandboxes to be one size fits all. I was very aware of the organization’s wide range of tech abilities, but I hadn’t considered that in my design. Eventually, I started organizing beginner and advanced levels of training. That way, if a learner already knew or had mastered the skills at the beginner level, they could “graduate” to the advanced level in the same month.
Sandboxes were carefully scheduled to be offered multiple times during the week, in the morning and afternoon, to accommodate schedules for the learners. In general, over 90% of tech sandbox participants agreed that they learned something new they could immediately use in their work.
Here is a sampling of topics and resources I developed for tech sandboxes:
Qualtrics (beginner and “next level”)
Microsoft Sway
Canva
Adobe Spark