Raise Industry Awareness on an Issue with a Learning Challenge Week

Do your members need to learn more about a particular issue, practice, regulation, or technology? Are industry employers grappling with a specific workplace challenge or skills gap? A solution to both these problems is a learning challenge week that gets the entire member community to focus attention on one issue.

What Is a Learning Challenge Week

A learning challenge week is a short-term, intensive marketing campaign for learning activities dedicated to a specific topic or skill.

Benefits of a learning challenge week for your association

Members (and their employers) benefit from a learning challenge week by acquiring new knowledge, skills, and perhaps even a few new acquaintances. But your association comes out way ahead too.

⏱️ Engage members with a daily activity of short duration and minimal time commitment

During a learning challenge week, members interact with your association every day and get used to relying on your association for educational content. Ask for only 10 to 20 minutes of their time each day. Because the challenge will come and go in a flash, remind them they don’t want to miss out.

📚 Bring attention to your LMS and education catalog

Host the challenge week’s microlearning modules on your learning management system (LMS) so members can easily explore other programs. Suggest opportunities to go deeper: a webinar, microcredentialing program, or online course related to the topic.

👩‍💻Raise awareness of a skills gap or industry issue 

Introduce members to a specific competency, like an AI skill, or give them the opportunity to sharpen an in-demand skill. Or address a shared problem, like a new regulation or emerging challenge, or give a new spin to an evergreen topic, like safety.

👥 Create a sense of community around a hot topic 

During a learning challenge week, everyone’s awareness and knowledge is raised as they go through the content at the same pace together. Schedule mini events throughout the week to give participants a chance to interact with other members.

📢 Jump start new initiatives

A learning challenge week creates a sense of momentum on a critical issue. Launch a new initiative while you have everyone’s attention.

👨‍🏫Get people into the learning mode

This might be the first time a member’s tip-toed into learning. A free, 15-minute mini lesson turns out to be easier to complete than they expected. Show them what steps they can take next to learn more.

📆 Point members to follow-up events and activities 

After members complete the challenge week, encourage them to sign up for a 30-day challenge starting in a few weeks. If the 30-day challenge is popular, next year, offer both options.

At the week’s conclusion, promote a mix of free and paid deeper dive activities:

• Discussion groups
• Webinars
• Conference sessions and recordings
• Online course or mini course
• Microcredentialing or certificate program

Invite members to sign up for an accountability partner to keep them on track as they pursue follow-up activities.

For the upcoming 30-day challenge or online course, put together cohort groups of participants.

💸 Offer sponsorship opportunities

Generate a new revenue stream from sponsorships by supplier members who wish to share their expertise and gain exposure during the challenge week.

Essential features of learning challenge weeks

Focus on one skill or issue. Design content requiring a time commitment of only 10 to 20 minutes a day. If they want to do more, you’ll give them options, but they’ll get enough from the official content alone.

Send a daily email with the suggested task: a 10- to 20-minute microlearning module that’s part of a self-paced mini course. Include an optional self-assessment in Day 1’s module. Each module includes:

• Recap and quiz about yesterday’s lesson (retrieval practice)
• Daily lesson: a mix of reading and captioned video, interactive quiz, and optional mini assignment, for example, a reflection exercise or fill-in-the-blank worksheet (more retrieval practice)
• Links to further reading, relevant community discussion, or upcoming event

Dedicate an existing discussion forum in your online community to the learning week. Share reflection questions and a hashtag for the social media channels most popular with members.

Kick off the week with a town hall, reminding members why this topic is so critical right now and telling them how to get the most out of the experience. Schedule additional free educational events throughout the week. Always offer chat rooms during virtual events.

On the last day, celebrate the end of the challenge with a trivia night featuring questions related to the week’s topic. Encourage chapters to host their own happy hour version.

Offer a CE credit (if possible) and digital badge to those who passed 70% of the quizzes and completed 70% of the assignments.

Encourage participants to reflect on their accomplishment and plan their next steps. Provide a promo code with an expiration date to get them to register for a program while they’re still motivated.

Examples of learning challenge weeks

Here’s some inspiration for your association’s learning challenge week.

✍️ Skill week

Help participants master a new competency with:

• Daily micro-lessons and interactive quizzes
• Daily retrieval practice in your online community
• Supplemental reading and viewing
• Sign up for an optional accountability cohort
  
  

⛑️ Safety challenge week

In addition to daily micro-lessons, schedule:

• Webinars: experts share insights and experiences on safety management, best practices, and trends
• Case studies: members discuss real-life examples of safety incidents, root causes, culture, change, management systems, and lessons learned
• Panel discussions: panelists share ideas and discuss challenges and solutions in maintaining a safe work environment

🆕 Innovation challenge week

Promote the week well in advance so participants are ready for:

• Micro-lessons on barriers to innovation, alternative approaches, ideation, and implementation
• Case study sessions on culture changes that led to innovation
• Pitch presentation night at the end of the week

🙋 Leadership challenge week

Schedule this week as a teaser for an upcoming leadership academy.

• Self-assessment of their self-awareness or leadership style
• Micro-lessons on feedback, motivation, and delegation techniques
• Virtual discussions on overcoming barriers to leadership
  
  

💆 Wellness challenge week

If your industry/profession has a busy time of year, schedule this week before that period.

• Micro-lessons on stress management, work/life boundaries, deep work, and morning routines
• Panel discussion on motivating personal transformation stories
• Accountability groups for 30-day habit tracking

The common success factor for any learning challenge week is a user-friendly LMS that hosts a variety of learning content, sends reminders, and tracks who’s participating, who abandons, and which activities are the most popular. To find the best LMS for your association, check out our Ultimate Guide to LMS Selection and Implementation.