Curiosity Metrics, Please!

So Much Data - Yet Nothing About Curiosity!

I want a Curiosity Metric of a learner (or group of learners) about a topic, skill or competency!

We have increased the metrics gathered and analyzed in learning. How many people took the course/program? How many completed the video or module? How many re-certified? How many signed up for the webinar and didn’t actually attend?

Yet, there are no Curiosity Metrics!

I believe that the Curiosity Level of an employee is one of the best predictors of learning success!

When we teach a colleague one-to-one, we can probe, ask or sense their curiosity about the topic. When we analyze the behavior of a class of employees, we can analyze whether this was a high, medium or low curiosity group of learners. When we give a keynote - online or in person, we can see patterns of behavior that may reflect their curiosity. But, we have no trusted way of reflecting a learner’s curiosity in a metric.

When I was facilitating courses on “How to Teach People to Use Computers” in the 1980’s, we explored Madelyn Hunter’s “Anticipatory Set”! Were the learners curious enough to want to (and to be able to) learn how to use their new PC’s or Apple Computers.

In 2022, I want a Curiosity Metric of a learner (or group of learners) about a topic, skill or competency!

Curiosity will change given the topic, the context, the background of the learner, the efficiency of the proposed learning and more. Curiosity will evolve over the course of a learning program and even over the course of a day. (My curiosity is drops after 4 pm, on most topics).

When we wrote “Big Learning Data Book” for ATD in 2013, most of our learning metrics were about consumption, learning patterns and transfer to the workplace. Most of the metrics coming from our Learning Systems focus on requirements, registrations, completions, certifications and other indicators of readiness.

Are Curiosity Metrics measured from learner’s responses, behaviors, transfer levels or other direct/indirect measures? And, what do we do with Curiosity Metrics as learning producers, designers and facilitators?

Let’s have a Conversation About: Curiosity Metrics!

MASIE Innovations and our Learning COLLABORATIVE will be exploring Curiosity Metrics in the coming months. We would love to engage our readers of NOTES to provide ideas and reactions. Please add a comment below or send me an email to emasie@masie.com

I am Curious :)

Yours in Learning,

Elliott Masie
www.masie.com