How to create Michelin level learning experiences
On our last night in Bogota, my husband and I ate at Leo, one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. My husband is a software engineer in the food tech industry, a wonderful home chef, and spends most of his free time watching niche youtube videos about cooking. Because of this hobby, we have tried our fair share of the finest cuisine around the world.
That night as the waiters placed each dish of neatly plated food in perfect unison, my husband pondered, “The food industry provides some of the best services in the world, how can we replicate that in online services?”
My mind immediately jumped to think about how to provide top-notch service in education.
What makes fine dining a luxurious experience and how can we apply it to education?
Personalization
At top restaurants, the team would greet us by name and already know our dietary preferences and restrictions through the online reservation system.
One of the most delightful dining experiences we’ve had was at Atelier, our favorite tasting menu in Ottawa. When the sommelier came with the wine for one of our courses, he explained that when we last came, I didn’t like the wine that was typically paired with this course. He swapped it for another recommendation.
A personalized experience makes us feel like the restaurant team cares about us and we are more than one of the nameless guests passing through each night.
In order to create a Michelin-level learning experience, we cannot let kids be just a number in the classroom or another box on the Zoom screen. A personalized experience means remembering details about each student and speaking to them like an old friend.
Luckily, there are so many online tools today that can help an educator track student information in order to personalize the experience. At BETA Camp, we built a CRM-like database on Notion with information on each student taken from the application, onboarding form, and our notes after each interaction. This would include the student’s answers to what they hope to achieve, what subjects they’re interested in, and notes like “camera off”, “they spoke up in the main session”, or “they self-organized a meetup to form teams”, and more.
The data collected directly impacts the quality of the learning experience. For example, most programs suffer from accountability problems. At BETA camp, this wasn’t an issue. By the time students form startup teams and get to work, we already know who the active participants are and who have not been present. Our staff knows which teams need more attention and adjust goals accordingly. Data has also helped us customize break-out rooms, speakers, and weekly check-ins that have increased engagement and student satisfaction.
Unbundling service
At fine restaurants, there is a clear division of labor in the people who serve us. There is usually a greeter that is responsible for checking in and seating, a waiter that introduces the dishes, some servers that deliver the food, a sommelier for wine recommendations, many kitchen staff with various responsibilities, the head chef for recipes and final touches, and the manager for coordination.
In education, the teacher is expected to do it all - know the curriculum, create the lesson plan, deliver the content, answer questions, give feedback, grade homework, and keep track of all students.
No wonder the learning experience can’t be personalized!
In order to create a Michelin-level experience in learning, the role of a teacher needs to be unbundled.
At BETA Camp, we think carefully about who needs to conduct each student interaction. For example, the Head of Innovation at IKEA runs the workshop on Design Thinking. As we scaled in the number of students, we didn’t bring in more Heads of Innovation to ensure each breakout room was overseen because that would be both expensive and difficult to coordinate. Instead, we trained a team of facilitators to hop between breakout rooms.
The person that checks in weekly and develops a trust-based relationship with students doesn’t need to be a facilitator, it can be a staff member specifically tasked with community building and armed with notes from each session. Some tasks held by a traditional teacher can also be replaced with learning apps and asynchronous videos. For example, kids can learn theory by watching videos and practicing in apps, thereby saving classroom time for engaging activities and teacher feedback.
Understanding which task needs to be completed by who (or what) is essential for any business. This allows each role to focus on its impact, leading to a better learning experience.
Experiential journey
At Leo, we were taken on an adventure with the waiter as our guide. We toured Colombia by tasting everything from baby alligator tails to organic cacao-flavored gyoza. The dishes were carefully curated to showcase the best of Colombia’s land and sea ingredients.
The key differentiation and value add of fine dining is a curated culinary experience designed in a purposeful way - not just to fill your stomach with anything. A Michelin-level learning experience should have a curated curriculum designed in a purposeful way - not just to fill kids with random facts.
Students aren’t interested in a subject when they don’t understand why they should care about it. Once there is a purpose, it’s still difficult to identify what is essential when there’s an overwhelming amount of information.
Learning with purpose creates an immediate need for knowledge which a well-curated curriculum can provide. Curation isn’t about adding or limiting information, it’s about thinking deeply about why learn instead of what to learn. When we curate, we have to consider who is going to be consuming our content and why it will be valuable to them. In BETA Camp’s case, we ruthlessly prioritize the knowledge that is absolutely necessary for kids to build an MVP and launch it to the world. We’ve also noticed that when kids know what they are working towards and are given enough knowledge to get started, they will naturally notice their gaps in knowledge and work towards filling it themselves.
By structuring learning with a purpose, educators are able to curate a meaningful curriculum and take students on a learning adventure instead of just memorizing meaningless facts. With purpose in mind, students will also make better choices on what they want to dig deeper into and why. Instead of learning every subject at a shallow level, students can learn from multi-disciplinary courses that help them accomplish a purpose like building a video game, creating a medieval era cosplay party, or writing their first biography.
It’s unfortunate that today’s education system is more like a fast-food chain instead of a fine dining experience. But with the right tools, staffing strategy, and values on learning with purpose, we can transform the education experience.