Lighten the Learning Load
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Lessons about agile learning from marketing, web design and brain research. Presented as a Pecha Kucha at Learning 2013 conference, November 2013.
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Lighten the Learning Load
- 1. Lighten the learning load Lessons about Agile Learning PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL November 2013 Start Here MAIN MENU
- 3. 3 An abundance of Information We are drowning in information that’s more readily accessible than ever before. But are we learning? PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 4. 4 First, a story about bread. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 5. 5 Living in America… PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 6. 6 PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL Agony Over Decision How do we stave off this unhappiness? Choices Available MAIN MENU
- 7. 7 So, limit and categorize options PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 8. 8 Learning should be conversational Write the way you talk PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 9. 9 Access is everything Desktop: Look up Tablet: Curl Up MAIN MENU PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL Phone: What’s Up
- 10. 10 Make learning bite-sized PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 11. 11 Get emotional Emotion: This is the brain we make decisions with PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 12. 12 Get visual vs. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 13. 13 Elements of surprise PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 14. 14 Deliver information at the moment of need PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 15. 15 Be social. Share. It’s in your nature. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 16. 16 Make the personal also comparable PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 18. 18 Ted Ed PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL MAIN MENU
- 19. 19 Resources The Supercharged Learning Professional • UX Design as a Two-way Conversation • Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely • Ed.ted.com • Lumosity • RSA Animate, The Power of Quiet • Laura Walsh, Wordwealthy Consulting Judy Albers Director jalbers@intrepidlearning.com Office 219.548.2926 Cell 219.670.6889 MAIN MENU PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL •
Editor's Notes
- Do you have afriend from whom you learn a lot about something you’re both passionate about? Well I’m really passionate about making learning more agile, and I have a brilliant friend who is, too.
- Meet my friend Laura, the marketing strategist. She’s the introvert cat to my extrovert dog. I teach Laura about learning and she teaches me about marketing. And web design. And life. I’d like to share several lessons Laura has taught me, and a couple I’ve taught her.
- Remember when the internet was still fun? Now it feels we’re drowning in information, and our jobs as learning professionals are way more challenging – learners have shorter attention spans, less time and ever higher expectations. The challenge can seem bigger than we are, like there’s no clear solution.But there is.
- First though, a story. Laura told me about her friend from Spain who moved to the US, but couldn’t speak English very well. Overwhelmed and scared, she didn’t leave her house for two weeks. She finally decided she’d venture out for a simple task, to buy bread. She expected to be in and out, like at home where there’s one brand of bread at her grocer. A successful first shopping trip to build her confidence.
- That didn’t happen. Faced with an overwhelming bread aisle, she burst into tears and left the store, without her bread.The lesson? Too much of a good thing can make you cry.
- We can all get paralyzed by information overload. When we have infinite choice, our expectations setus up to be unhappy with any choice we make. And sometimes we choose NOT to choose, even when that hurts us. Like when too many mutual funds are offered, more employees don’t choose ANY for their retirement plans, which hurts their financial future.
- Here’s what we cando!Minimize the actions learners can take at any given moment. They’ll be less likely to abandon online learning and more satisfied with the experience.In a grocery store, people were 10X more likely to buy jam when they were presented with 6 choices than with 24. It’s the paradox of choice.
- Next, write the way you talk. Learning is about thelearner, not the content.We pay more attention to what’s being said during a conversation than during a lecture, right?Writing for the web in a more conversational tone actually tricks the brain into thinking it’s having a real conversation and primes users to pay attention.
- Learners want everything on their device of choice, so think about the typical (not universal, but typical) mindset we have with each device.On my Desktop, I’m multitasking. I want to LOOK UP something quickly and take action On my Tablet, I’ll CURL UP and take the time to engage with content.On my phone, I’m on the move, I want short timely news – WHAT’s UP
- One thing most professionals can agree on is “Don’t Waste My Time”. So make learning bite-sized. It’s appetizing that way.Micro-lessons that take 10 minutes or less can be combined into an entire curriculum, like the one I showed you earlier, and an example coming up.
- You know how we have reptilian, emotional, and rational brains? Well, we do NOT make decisions with the rational brain – we use it to justify decisions we make with the emotional brain. So evoke emotion from your learners. Use pictures, analogies and stories. Make them feel something, and they’ll learn something.
- Get visual. Which of these pages about mushrooms will engage more learners? Images speak to our brains more powerfully than text. We can’t help it. We’re wired visually.It’s obvious we’re moving toward a visual marketing world. Marketing firm Hubspot’sfacebook posts with PHOTOSgot 83% more traffic than their TEXT posts.
- Surprise them. People want to navigate online learning exactly the way they expect to, so don’t get overly creative with navigation, but at the visual or storytelling level, add elements of surprise. Juxtaposition, novelty, oxymorons…oh, and Animals and babies can’t hurt.
- Progressive disclosure is a phrase you need to know. In video games, new skills and tools are introduced at the moment the player needs them. People don’tmanage multiple requests well, so never present more than a single concept on screen. We limit our microlessons to 300 characters per screen.
- Sharing is caring, right? If you share something it means something, and we’re intrinsically motivated by the social currency we get from sharing something remarkable or useful.Plus, if you can explain it to someone else, you understand it. So make your bite sized lessons easy to share.
- Make it personal andcomparable. Comparison motivates people. I can’t tell you how many times I took more brain training from Lumosity and went back to this dashboard to see if I raised my percentile standing.
- Here’s what agile learning looks like fromLumosity, which is designed by neuroscientists who understand how to optimize what our brains can take in. I see a record of my activity, am presented with just a few choices, and stay motivated by my personal dashboard stats. Visual. Simple.
- And here’s agile learning fromTed Ed. What a brilliant idea to make Ted talks into micro-lessons that teachers can flip for classroom use. Look, interesting visuals and just a few calls to action – Watch, Think (that’s a quiz) Dig Deeper (that’s additional resources) and Discuss.
- In closing, I believe the learning professionals of the future will be expert generalists, drawing from the best thinking in marketing, web design, and brain research. My friend Laura the marketer helped me learn not justhow people consume information, but what motivates them to take interest and then to take action.