In this Q&A podcast, I speak with Catherine Lombardozzi, author of Learning Environments by Design. Catherine is the director of the Center for Creative Instruction and Technology at Delaware Technical Community College and founder of Learning 4 Learning Professionals. Her work focuses on the professional development of designers, facilitators, learning consultants, and learning leaders. She has been enthusiastically engaged in the learning and development field for more than 30 years and integrates practical experience with academic grounding. 

To start, I asked Catherine what prompted her to write Learning Environments by Design. Here answer was simple: she saw a need. She noticed that over the last 10 years many leaders in the field were touting the need to incorporate social learning, informal learning, experiential learning, and so forth, but few were offering advice on how to do that. 

For instance, Catherine explains why it’s important for L&D professionals to understand self-directed learning—and how to do it right. The book, therefore, covers what sort of impactful solutions L&D needs to put in place so learners can access what they need when they need it, not to mention how they want to receive it. 

Finally, we briefly discussed some basic considerations when customizing the learning experience. In other words, how can L&D best scaffold new learning methodologies like self-directed and social learning? 

For more advice and insight, listen to the complete podcast. Also, be sure to check out Learning Environments by Design, which describes practical ways to customize learning experiences by creating a curated approach to skills development—one that features informal and social learning, developmental activities, experiential learning, as well as formal training.