Part 3: For harder, creative tasks

In Part I of the Video+Teach series, we covered when and why to use video to teach your employees. 

In Part II, we looked at how-to videos, the “quick fix” for quickly teaching your team. 

But, what if you have something more complicated to teach, or maybe you need to teach something that doesn’t have such a defined result. 

For example:

• How to write ad copy
• How to design color schemes
• How to work 3D Design software
• How to organize raw data
• How to present a meal to diners

For this, we incorporate video into a teaching model we call the Gradual Release of Responsibility.

The Gradual Release of Responsibility
The “old school” way of teaching was just demonstration and repetition. “Watch me hammer this rivet… and now it’s your turn.” 

Fortunately, we have a better way, a way that allows learners to make mistakes and ask questions under the watchful eye of the more experienced master.

It’s called the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR), and it has 3-4 steps, depending on context.

1. Teacher/Expert does, Learner watches (“I do”)
2. Teacher/Learner do together (“We do together”)
3. Learners work together (“You do together”) (Can be skipped if you don’t have groups of learners)
4. Learners work individually (“You do”)

The GRR is best used in higher-order types of thinking. To illustrate this, we need to bring out an old teacher education classic, Bloom’s Taxonomy.

I won’t go into a complete breakdown of each level - that’s for students of education and instructional design. Instead, take my word for this, GRR works really well for the apply and analyze levels.

(Now, teachers may yell at me for this part - GRR also works well for remember and understand. Yes, I agree. Teachers use it all the time in math classes to learn how to solve equations. But, with your business, we’re looking at it for the medium-term solution for problems that are too difficult for a simple how-to video). 

Now, why is this a medium-term solution? Because it’s not something for which you can just give your employees the video and call it a day. It does require teaching in conjunction with the video. 

So, when would you use GRR and when would you use a how-to video? Have a look at the chart below:

You might see a pattern. The Gradual Release of Responsibility works well when feedback from a more experienced partner is needed and essential. 

So, remember: 

1. I do
   
2. We do together
   
3. You do together
   
4. You do individually
   

The Gradual Release of responsibility. It’s more than just demonstration and repetition. 

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In Part IV, we’ll talk about what to do when “Those Damn Millennials” need some initiative. It’s called developing a “bias toward action,” and it’s a new technique utilized by the US Marine Corps in basic training!

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David Dubczak

Video Producer + Teacher