Training smarter: 6 tips to make your training more effective Table of Contents. 0 It’s time for a learning revolution. ................................................................. 3 1 Tap into learner curiosity and motivation. ...............................................4 2 Reduce cognitive load. ........................................................................................ 6 3 Storytelling. ............................................................................................................... 8 4 Emotional connections. ...................................................................................... 9 5 A blended approach. .......................................................................................... 11 6 Utilise the brain’s neural pathways. ............................................................13 7 A parting thought. ............................................................................................... 15 2 It’s time for a learning 0 revolution. The Covid-19 pandemic has given us a chance to rest, recharge and reinvigorate our training programmes. As businesses adjust to the “new normal” the spotlight is on us, as learning and development professionals, to lead the way and put learning at the top of everyone’s agenda. But to get the most out of this opportunity, we must break habits, deviate from our training norms and deliver truly effective experiences, in both digital and face-to-face settings. To do this we must use learning science and design initiatives that tap into how our brains work when processing and retaining information and learning skills. We must work with our brain’s reaction to motivation, emotions, storytelling to ensure our learners get the most out of their training, regardless of the setting. This eBook will walk you through some of these tactics you can apply to your training. Our aim is not just to help you design and deliver effective and memorable learning experiences; we are going to help put you on the map, as being one of the best trainers around. 3 Tap into learner 1 curiosity and motivation. The first step to delivering effective training experiences is to ensure your learners are sufficiently motivated. It’s possible, in the past, you’ve found yourself face to face with an unengaged cohort of people, and you knew what to do to change this around and ignite their enthusiasm. But stepping into the world of digital delivery might mean your learners are harder to engage with and your previous tactics are now less effective. But what if we combat the motivation problem before the start of the course? Sadly, many adults do not prioritise learning. Instead they see training as something they’re forced to do by their employers. For that reason, their intrinsic motivation to learn is minimal. It is our job as learning professionals to ensure we spark learner curiosity before they start a programme to prompt them to think about why they want to take part. 4 What’s in it for me? 1 There’s much debate about the level of selfishness in humans, but the ultimate truth is, we’re all selfish to some extent. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that when embarking on any learning experience, the first thing learners will ask themselves is, “what’s in it for me?”. It’s your job to answer this question. Often in corporate environments, training experiences focus on the benefit for the organisation, instead of the individual learner. Flip the perspective and ensure your learners know what they’ll get from the course, and you’ll immediately have a more motivated group. Increased motivation means more effective learning. 5 Reduce cognitive load. 2 Training designers are often asked to cram as much information into a course as possible, to ensure the learner gets a full picture of the subject matter at hand. Then, in an attempt to make the course engaging, they cram in as many modalities as possible, switching between images, video, audio and text in a short space of time. This often distracts people, causes cognitive overload and makes the learning process more challenging for all. Chunk and support Learners aren’t computers and can’t just keep taking in new information. Both working memory and short term memory can be overloaded quickly. You can design programmes with this in mind. To create a truly effective learning experience, ensure you don’t overload your learners with too much information, ensuring each section of training is chunked into manageable bites. What’s more, you will decrease the cognitive capacity of learners further, if you use irrelevant, confusing imagery, video, text or audio in your training. For example, if you are designing an eLearning course and the image alongside your text is fuzzy, 6 your learners may be more focused on interpreting the picture, than processing 2 the written information. A great way to reduce cognitive load in learning is gradually to reduce the amount of support throughout the training. At the start, you offer high support (in the form of teaching aids, checklists, group work and so on). Throughout the experience, as they learn more, you take away these supports. Examples of support may be: • An opportunity to observe someone proficient in the skill • Provide process sheets (do this, then that) • Using case studies or stories To raise you’re credibility and influence, when you’re asked to squeeze too much content into training explain cognitive overload to the person suggesting you add more. Help them to see how it will not add value and could be damaging to the rest of the training. 7 Storytelling. 3 Storytelling makes up the world around us. It’s how we communicate with our friends, it’s what we watch on the television, and you guessed it, it’s how we learn. Before entering formal education, we are already learning from fables, fairy tales and stories told by our parents. Why? Because stories are a great way to persuade and influence. Your learner can connect with your lead character, feel their emotions, understand the steps they’ve taken, and cement the protagonist’s learnings into their own emotions and long-term memory. How to use stories to make training more effective Though a really valuable training technique, you can’t just spin a yarn about anything. To get the most out of your stories you must ensure they: • Are realistic and relatable to your learners. Stories in learning should not be dramatized beyond recognition, as that will invalidate the story – and thus diminish learning potential. • Are short and to the point. It’s tempting when telling a story to meander away from the main plot. But digressing into subplots is a sure-fire way to confuse your learners. • Spark emotion in your learners. Stories are effective because it’s in our nature to form emotional connections with the characters. As learning and development professionals, we must utilise these emotions to make our stories (and therefore the learning at hand) more memorable. When integrating storytelling into your training, make use of user-generated content. Is there someone who has already achieved great success after training? Sharing their story will not only engage learners, it’ll spark curiosity and increase motivation and as we saw in point 1, they’re both essential to effective training! 8 Emotional connections. 4 Emotions make situations more memorable. In fact, it’s likely that most of your memories are connected to a strong emotion, be that shame, pride, excitement, happiness or fear. Therefore, triggering emotions in learning is a great way to make your training more memorable thus making it more effective! Triggering emotions in your training programmes has a two-fold effect. Firstly, emotions capture and maintain the attention of your learners (see point one). And secondly, they make the experience more memorable by attaching it to an extremely real emotive feeling. But, there are four key emotions when it comes to learning, which are dubbed the ‘Knowledge Emotions’ by Paul Silvia, Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina. Emotions that encourage learning, exploring and reflecting The four emotions that are considered Knowledge Emotions are: surprise, interest, confusion and awe. Let’s explore each of these in more detail: 9 Surprise 4 The feeling of surprise focuses a person on a source of possible danger, 1 startling them into paying attention which is the route to memory. Therefore, it’s a great tool to use in training – notably using surprise to pique learner interest and create intrigue. Interest Interest is likely the least surprising knowledge emotion to most people. 2 When we’re interested in something, we want to explore it. This will stimulate people to reflect and learn, build knowledge and in the long term, deep expertise. Confusion Weirdly, some confusion can be good for learning. Studies have shown 3 that a confused learner will actively process information to understand it, rather than passively listening to it. Thus, once understood, the student is more likely to retain the information. But remember you must give people the opportunity to work it out and understand it. Awe Awe is the least common of the knowledge emotions and encourages 4 learners to engage with something extraordinary. It’s a knowledge emotion commonly seen in a science lab at high school but there’s no reason you can’t take advantage of it. Each of these Knowledge Emotions are highly effective for one reason: they interrupt learners within their habitual behaviours, you might say ‘taking them out of their comfort zone’.