Learning pioneers in the spotlight: Claudia Hamerlinck
Together with all the learning pioneers in our community, we are on a mission to make training a little better every day. Your shared insights and stories are the fuel that keep this community running.
That’s why, in this series, we to talk to other learning pioneers and ask them some thought-provoking questions.
This installment, Claudia Hamerlinck from Leerpunt KOEL takes the spotlight.
Claudia Hamerlinck
She's a learning and development specialist at Leerpunt KOEL. She never wants to stop developing, so she doesn't have a bucket list. It suggests that you could be finished someday.
For what part of your job can people wake you up at night?
“Give me a design, a style document and the right guidelines and I’ll turn a boring PowerPoint or document into the right corporate identity. I’m not a graphic designer, but I love it. You can be sure that I take care of every detail. Think of the right colours, fonts, logos and images. We have also implemented Leerpunt KOEL’s visual identity in a tight and consistent manner throughout. A really satisfying job!”
What challenge or problem in your job can keep you up at night?
“We are currently working on a major project. We are redesigning our entire SOH training (In English: Doctor’s assistant consultation hours) for which new versions are starting up all the time. This course has been around for years and has everything a good blended course – with a duration of six months – needs: four course days, test and practice moments, an interactive digital learning environment in aNewSpring and a corresponding course folder. This revision goes right down to crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, which also means that all adjustments have to be made synchronously. As a lover of learning, development, lists and design you can probably understand that I am in the right place in this challenging project.”
What was the best or most valuable mistake you ever made?
“I have two juicy examples. In my work, I am always looking for systems that can solve issues automatically. It has happened that an automatic message was sent to hundreds of people, which was not meant for them. My colleagues bore the brunt of it, they received all the responses. I have also shared a wrong screen during a presentation to potential customers. To this day, I blame Microsoft Teams for being so slow in responding, haha. My tip: make sure you don’t have any unnecessary screens open before you share something.”
“When I am developing, I am always looking for the 'cheese board'. Do I have all the small pieces of information through different ways?”
What do you think is the biggest misconception about learning?
“As a training provider, you can’t keep up with all the hypes surrounding new tools, integrations and platforms. It all sounds nice and interesting, but you can’t offer your learner everything, or they will get lost. Keep it simple and effective. Not only for your participant, but also for yourself. Make choices that you are good at. You know the drill… less is more!”
Who or what would you recommend as a source of inspiration to other learning pioneers?
“Imagine you are in a restaurant and have just had a delicious meal. Even though you are stuffed to the brim, you decide to order another cheese board. You then eat the whole board, because the cheeses are all slightly different and taste different. Try to do the same with learning; turn your training into a cheeseboard. Alternate learning activities and challenge your participants with small pieces of information through different ways. This example is from a training course I once followed on brain-friendly learning, from Prof. Stefan van der Stigchel. This training was and still is very valuable for my work. When I am developing, I often think: do I have a cheeseboard now? Are all the aspects on it?”
What do you do differently to challenge the status quo in learning or training?
“My work truly is my passion. That is why I am always on the lookout for the question: what else is there to discover? What is interesting to keep track of? aNewLetter is just the thing; it is all filtered and sorted out. It saves me time. Besides my work, I am active in handbiking (handbiking means pedalling with your arms). Every year in Austria there is the HandBikeBattle, in which you have to climb a mountain of 20 km and almost 1000 altitude metres, purely on arm strength. I am going to participate this year; in June to be precise. I have been training for this for four years.”
