Continuous, lifelong learning is imperative in keeping skills updated in today’s economy. To support these initiatives, there are several learning sciences you can integrate within your learning programs to ensure success for your learners. Even though many organizations are aware of these learning sciences, many are unsure how to turn these sciences into successful and profitable eLearning products.
In a recent webinar with ATD, BenchPrep’s Senior Director of Customer Operations, Emily Leary, uncovers learning science and why they are important to your digital learning program. Here are the highlights:
What is Learning Science?
Simply putting your analog, in-person learning content in a digital format, and distributing it to your learners without a strategy isn’t going to cut it anymore. Modern learners need information displayed in ways that will help them learn and retain knowledge better. That’s why many organizations are now incorporating learning science into their learning strategy.
So, what do we mean by learning science?
Learning science combines research, data, and practices to help educators teach better and help students learn more. This evidence-based methodology is used to create educational solutions that are agile and powerful enough to meet the ever-changing needs of learners and instructors worldwide.
How Can Technology Help?
You can use learning science in an in-person learning environment, but it can be manual, inefficient, and expensive. However, if you want an alternative solution that meets your learners demands at the right cost, a learning technology can help.
Technology has enabled learning science practices to scale and thrive in today’s world. Here are some ways technology can help:
- Scalable solutions: Technology can enable scalable solutions that incorporate learning science. This will have a positive impact on your learners which will ultimately cause a positive impact on your business.
- Less hassle: Using a new technology may feel intimidating to incorporate these concepts because of how manual it is. The truth is, technology can decrease the amount of manual legwork and it makes your program more attainable to the masses.
Do not be overwhelmed or intimidated by learning science -be excited by the possibilities technology can unlock and put into real practice.
Lesson #1: Continuous Learning Can Combat the Forgetting Curve
Did you know that within 30 days, 79% of knowledge is forgotten? It’s no wonder you likely don’t remember what you learned in your certification program from the last year. This action of “forgetting” originates from the concept of the forgetting curve.
The forgetting curve is the idea that, without reinforcement, human memory of content deteriorates rapidly. This concept is the reason why many of your learners who cram for a test a day or two before the exam, don't do as well as the learners who have been studying the materials for a longer period of time.
One way to combat the forgetting curve is through continuous learning. Continuous learning is the process of learning new skills and knowledge on an on-going basis.
Your brain isn’t a computer, meaning it doesn’t memorize on command. Instead, your brain creates networks of neurons to make deep memories. Continuous learning helps to create those networks so your learners can retain the knowledge they have learned at a greater rate.
If you want your learning experiences to help learners achieve true mastery beyond the exam, you need a continuous learning strategy to combat the forgetting curve.
Lesson #2: Continuous Learning is Your Learner’s Key to Mastery
As the saying goes, the more you know -- the more you grow. Just knowing isn’t enough anymore, there is a greater need for mastery in today’s workforce.
Traditional learning methods focus on knowledge retention for a certain amount of time until an exam or course completion. The problem with this is that the modern learner is not retaining the information used after that course, thus, not being able to translate those learnings into a skillset.
Mastery, or the concept of mastery-based learning, is the process in which the learner has to master their knowledge where their job critical skills have been verified. In contrast to the traditional method of learning, mastery-based learning combats short-term retention problems by focusing on the skills needed to perform a certain position.
Here are some learning science concepts that can help your learners reach mastery:
- Confidence-Based Learning: This learning science concept assesses learners on the correctness of their knowledge, as well as the confident levels of their answers. Confidence-based learning gives learners real and valuable feedback about their performance and gives them a better understanding of proficiency. This will lead them to that desired mastery.
- Spaced Repetition: This concept helps learners combat the forgetting curve by delivering content in spaced intervals of time. With spaced repetition, we are significantly more likely to retain that content and commit it to long term memory.
Want to learn more?
Learning science is not only good for shaping your learning content but it can help your learning program become profitable. We shared what learning science is and two important lessons for incorporating learning science in your training program, but there’s so much more to cover!
Download our e-book, Dreaming of Recurring Revenue? Engage Learners Continuously, to learn about how to use learning science to make your learning program profitable.
