The book covers a comprehensive discussion on evidence-based training methods and their importance in delivering efficient and effective training programs. It highlights the application of these methods in designing and evaluating training programs, and the challenges faced in implementation. The content also discusses the effective use of varied communication modes in instructional environments, such as text, audio, and graphics. It delves into the comparison between stills and animations, the effective use of text and audio, and the power of learning by observation. The discussion encompasses the use of high fidelity examples for routine tasks, varied context examples for strategic tasks, and ways to engage learners with examples.
How does it apply to you?
This blog will be useful for training professionals who want to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their training programs. It can also help educators and students who are interested in the science of learning and teaching.
Applied Learning to Developer Enablement
In the context of software development, evidence-based training methods could refer to training practices that are backed by empirical research and scientific evidence. This could include methods such as pair programming, code reviews, or the use of specific tools and technologies that have been shown to improve developers' productivity and code quality.
Developer Checklist
Understand Evidence-Based Training Methods: Learn about evidence-based training methods, their importance, and how to apply them in software development. Understand the challenges in implementing these methods and find ways to overcome them.
Effective Use of Communication Modes: In your software development training, make sure to use a combination of text, audio, and graphics effectively. Avoid overly complex visuals and use line graphics and animations for spatial tasks. Use color and shapes to boost motivation.
Comparing Stills and Animations: Understand when to use still visuals and when to use animations in your software development training. Use still visuals for teaching mechanical and scientific processes and animations for demonstrating dynamic movements or changes.
Manage Cognitive Load with Animated Visuals: When using animated visuals in your training, manage the cognitive load by using cues to direct attention, providing controls to pause and replay, segmenting the content, and providing explanations through audio narration.
Effective Use of Text and Audio: Place text near visuals that require an explanation and keep sentences concise. Use audio for explaining complex graphics and avoid repeating written text in the audio narration.
Personalize Communication: Personalize your communication in the training by using the first and second person in text or audio narration. Consider using on-screen learning agents that serve a relevant purpose.
Leverage Learning by Observation: Use practical demonstrations or 'worked examples' in your software development training to save instructional time and facilitate learning of structured tasks, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking skills.
Use High-Fidelity Examples for Routine Tasks: For procedural tasks in software development, use worked examples that closely replicate the actual workplace environment, showcasing tasks from the learner's visual perspective.
Provide Varied Context Examples for Strategic Tasks: For tasks that involve problem-solving or critical thinking, provide multiple worked examples that vary the cover story while illustrating the core guidelines. This helps learners understand how to apply the same principles in different situations.
Engage Learners with Examples: Enhance the processing of examples in your software development training by actively engaging learners. This can be achieved by adding self-explanation questions to the examples or giving assignments that involve comparing different examples.
Application of Principles on Text, Audio, and Graphics: Design worked examples using relevant visuals, explained with audio or text closely associated with them to cater to different learning preferences.
Engagement and Learning: Differentiate between behavioral engagement and psychological engagement. Ensure behavioral engagement aligns with the learning objective and avoids mental overload.
The Role of Psychological Engagement: Encourage learners to process and practice content and skills that align with the learning objective to facilitate learning.
Promoting Psychological Engagement: Include relevant visuals, worked examples or demonstrations, and personalization techniques in your explanations to enhance learning.
Effective Behavioral Engagement Techniques: Incorporate questions into explanations and examples, use interactive tools during lectures, and assign relevant collaborative exercises.
Optimizing Behavioral Engagement through Practice Exercises: Align practice exercises with the learning objective, assign sufficient practice based on the task's criticality, space practice over and among learning events, and mix practice categories when necessary.
Productive Feedback for Behavioral Responses: Provide feedback that offers knowledge of results, explains the answer, focuses on ways to improve outcomes, avoids comparing learner outcomes with others, and allows instructors to adapt teaching to individual or group needs.
Role of Explanations in Learning Environments: Utilize explanations as the primary method of conveying information and concepts to learners in various forms such as lectures, online tutorials, workbooks, or game hints.
Adding Behavioral Engagement to Explanations: Make explanations more engaging by incorporating frequent activities like asking questions, linking questions to examples, organizing collaborative exercises, and assigning drawing tasks.
Promoting Psychological Engagement during Explanations: Incorporate relevant graphics and examples, and leverage social presence during explanations to enhance psychological engagement.
Avoiding Extraneous Cognitive Load: Keep explanations concise and focused to prevent learners from becoming overwhelmed and to minimize extraneous cognitive load.
Understanding Procedures: Identify routine tasks that are executed in a consistent manner each time they are performed and guide them with performance support.
Role of Performance Support in Training: Use performance support to replace or supplement training for tasks that involve assembly.
Breaking Down Tasks for Teaching: Teach procedures in small chunks, ideally between 7 to 12 steps each, ensuring these subtasks are taught in the context of the whole task.
Importance of Pre-Teaching Concepts: Teach the necessary concepts for understanding the procedure beforehand and ensure their context within the task is shown.
Implementing Guided Practice with Feedback: Provide guidance during the learning process, in the form of demonstrations, guided practice, and feedback, depending on the complexity of the procedure.
Introduction to Scenario-Based Learning: Implement scenario-based learning by designing a preplanned, guided inductive learning environment. Use this method for tasks that require critical thinking skills or tasks that are challenging to learn on the job due to safety or other factors.
The Importance of Realistic Scenarios: Collaborate with experts to identify realistic scenarios and the thought processes required to resolve them. Drive the learning experience with real-world scenarios derived from experts or work samples.
Embedding Guidelines into Training: Incorporate domain-specific guidelines into courses focusing on job-relevant tasks for best results. Utilize generic thinking guidelines to support critical thinking skills.
Providing Sufficient Guidance: Use guidance techniques such as transitioning from simple to complex scenarios, constraining learner control through structured scenario designs like branched scenarios, and providing instructional support. Give both consequential (intrinsic) and instructional feedback during and at the end of a scenario.
Opportunity for Explicit Reflection: Encourage learners to review their decisions and actions and identify lessons learned. Use techniques like collaborative debriefs, comparing the learner's solution with an expert's solution, replaying the scenario, and having the learner articulate the lessons they've learned.
Introduction to Serious Games: Design games with the dual purpose of providing entertainment and facilitating learning. Research their potential benefits and effective use in educational settings.
Aligning Game Progress with Learning Outcomes: Ensure game actions and progress are directly linked to the learning goal. As players navigate the game, they should simultaneously be navigating towards the desired learning outcome.
Reducing Complexity to Enhance Learning: Simplify the game's interface to avoid extraneous cognitive load. Minimize any narrative themes or mental work not directly related to the learning objective. Provide pretraining on the principles underlying the game to help players understand the game better and focus on the learning objectives.
Encouraging Reflection on Lessons Learned: Use strategies such as collaborative play, comparison of responses or results with expert responses or results, and a learner statement of lessons learned to encourage conscious awareness of lessons learned.
Incorporating Instructional Methods to Promote Learning: Enhance learning from a game by adding known instructional methods. These techniques include adding job aids such as an explanation of principles, using audio for explanations and feedback, including a pregame exercise to familiarize players with game concepts and interface, giving explanatory feedback, and adding self-explanation questions.
Training Fads and Fables: Avoid misconceptions about learning styles, instructional methods, and student ratings. Understand that the effectiveness of learning depends on the best use of basic instructional methods and not on the medium or high student ratings.
Applying Evidence-Based Practice to Training: Be a critical consumer of training recommendations. Question the features of the method under discussion, the evidence for this method, the validity of the evidence, the appropriateness of the method for the audience, and how the method fits with our understanding of human memory's limits and strengths.
What is Evidence-Based Practice?: Understand the role of visuals in learning. Be aware that the effectiveness of visuals depends on several factors, including the type and rendering of the visual, the prior knowledge of the learner, and the instructional objective. Know that simpler graphics can often be more effective than complex ones and that learners tend to prefer materials with visuals, even if they may not be optimal for learning or performance.
Applying Evidence-Based Practice to Your Training: Consider factors such as the use of random assignment in experimental studies, the similarity of treatment and control groups, the duration of the experimental lesson, and the characteristics of the learner population when reviewing academic research.
The Bottom Line of How People Learn: Understand the influence of experience on memory capacity, the relationship between self-confidence and motivation, the capacity of working memory, and the impact of lesson design on learners' mental load.
Applying Learning Psychology to Your Training: Use techniques that direct attention, stimulate integration of new content with existing knowledge, and optimize cognitive load to improve training outcomes.
The Bottom Line of Active Learning: Understand the importance of active engagement, the effectiveness of underlining text as a study strategy, the role of high-engagement games in learning, and the benefits of teach-backs.
Applying Engagement Principles to Training: Design environments that promote behavioral and psychological engagement, plan transformation activities such as teach-backs, incorporate questions into explanations, and encourage learners to self-explain during study.
Visualizing Content: Understand that the effectiveness of a visual depends on the learning goal, the design of the visual, the learners' background knowledge, and their engagement with the visual.
Applying Visuals to Training: Use visuals to reinforce the relationships in the lesson. Consider using semantic graphics such as flow charts, tables, or tree diagrams to illustrate multiple topics. Avoid visuals that distract from the learning goal.
Learning from Animations: Understand that animations can be effective in certain learning contexts, particularly for comprehension of processes and procedures involving dynamic motion changes.
Applying Animations to Your Training: Use animations to explain procedures and dynamic changes. Manage mental load by inserting pauses at logical places and including visual cues such as highlighting.
Explaining Visuals: Understand the effectiveness of different versions of visual explanations. Avoid split attention by integrating text into the figure or using audio narration to describe a complex visual.
Maximize Learning from Words: Use brief audio narration to describe complex visuals, add visual cues to correspond with the narration, and avoid using identical text sentences and narration to explain a visual. Don't use audio alone when introducing new technical terms or lengthy explanations.
Make Learning Personable: Use first- and second-person conversational language and social cues. Employ focused gestures pointing to the part discussed.
Apply Personalization to Training: Be psychologically accessible to learners, encourage and respond to comments and questions, use a conversational tone, share your own experiences and opinions, and utilize learning agents. Use collaborative assignments for challenging tasks.
Follow the Personalization Checklist: Use first- and second-person language, maintain a polite conversational tone, share personal experiences and perspectives on the content, offer social engagement opportunities, use online agents that project social cues, use a friendly voice for narration, generate social presence on discussion boards, and make collaborative assignments for challenging tasks.
Adopt Less Is More Approach: Focus on a few topics that can be effectively taught in the allotted time, include concise explanations, segment content into manageable chunks, allow learners to pace themselves, use simpler visuals, avoid irrelevant anecdotes, and refrain from adopting high-end technology indiscriminately.
Accelerate Expertise With Examples: Use worked examples combined with self-explanation questions or comparison questions. For strategic skills training, use multiple context-varied examples. Use the coping model for effective learning. Format examples to reduce mental load.
Apply Examples to Training: For routine tasks, use demonstrations with job-related tools and animation for tasks involving motion. For strategic tasks, use varied context worked examples and guided comparison tasks. Use coping models reflecting common errors. Prior to a lesson, show a model worked example that applies the lesson concepts. Encourage engagement through adjunct questions or guided comparisons with feedback. Segment complex examples and ensure diagrams are visible with the text.
Understanding the Power Law of Practice: Remember that skill gains occur mostly in the initial practice sessions. Distribute practice exercises throughout the lesson and mix questions from different topics for enhanced learning.
Optimizing Practice in Training: Design practice exercises that reflect the work environment and favor application over regurgitation. Adjust the amount of practice based on the task's criticality and the need for automatic responses.
Utilizing Feedback Effectively: Avoid feedback that compares performance to others and instead provide explanations for correct responses. Feedback should be linked to success criteria and include suggestions for improvement.
Applying Feedback to Your Training: Begin learning events with specific success criteria and provide immediate feedback after learner responses. Encourage learners to reflect on strengths and gaps and focus on improvement strategies.
Creating Effective Explanations: Use techniques like virtual polls and relevant visuals to engage learners. Keep explanations brief and segmented and consider a flipped classroom approach where explanations are reviewed before class.
Teaching Procedures Effectively: Present topics in small chunks to prevent mental overload and sequence facts or concepts before task steps. Use visuals for support and distribute practice exercises throughout the lesson.
Methods for Teaching Procedures: Focus on a job task and its associated knowledge topics. Provide practice and feedback after each segment and highlight the work context. Use visuals and audio or text to accompany demonstrations and provide prompt, explanatory feedback.
Incorporate Problem Scenarios in Lessons: Use multimedia scenario-based lessons for teaching critical thinking. These scenarios can be developed with simple branching and should include feedback for learner practice.
Use Realistic Multimedia: Include realistic multimedia in scenario-based environments to improve learning. Use video when workplace sights and sounds are critical data.
Apply Scenario-Based Approach for Certain Tasks: Consider scenario-based approach for tasks that involve decision making, critical thinking, or tasks that are challenging to learn due to infrequency or safety concerns.
Design Clean Interfaces: Ensure the interface is clean with clear learner response options. Start with fewer variables and less data and offer less learner control initially.
Provide Adequate Guidance: Minimize learner frustration by providing guidance that fades as learners gain experience. Allow learners to make mistakes, experience the results, and learn from them.
Incorporate Learning Games: Use learning games as they have proven to be effective. Test game prototypes in the specific learning environment to gather relevant data.
Consider Narratives in Games: Include job-relevant narratives in games. They can be motivational and effective.
Evaluate Social and Solo Play: Consider the potential learning and motivational benefits of social play. Determine the learning goals and types of learners that may benefit from either collaboration or competition in games.
Apply Multimedia Principles in Game Design: Use basic multimedia principles such as modality and personalization in game design. These principles reflect basic human cognitive processes and are applicable to various instructional contexts.
Apply Games to Workforce Training: Identify the types of games most useful for workforce learning. Align game rules with learning objectives, provide explanatory feedback, avoid complex interfaces, create opportunities for multiple game plays, provide instructional support, personalize games, and integrate games into a larger instructional solution.
FAQs
What are evidence-based training methods? Evidence-based training methods are grounded in empirical research and scientific evidence, ensuring that they are effective and reliable. By using such methods, training professionals can ensure that their training programs are not only effective but also efficient, maximizing the learning outcomes for the participants.
Why is it important to use evidence-based training methods? Using evidence-based training methods is important in a world where information is plentiful and easily accessible. It is crucial for training professionals to base their methods on solid scientific evidence. This ensures that the training they provide is not only accurate but also relevant and applicable to the participants' needs and contexts.
What challenges might one face when implementing evidence-based training methods? Challenges in implementing evidence-based training methods may include resistance from stakeholders, lack of resources, or difficulties in translating scientific evidence into practical training strategies.
How can instructional environments effectively use communication modes? Instructional environments can effectively use communication modes such as text, audio, and graphics, guided by extensive research. The inclusion of relevant graphics can enhance the learning experience for novices, compared to text alone. However, overly complex or distracting visuals should be avoided. Line graphics and animations are particularly beneficial for spatial tasks, and the use of color and shapes can boost motivation without hindering learning.
What is the comparison between stills and animations in teaching? Still visuals typically impose less cognitive load than animated visuals and have been found more effective in teaching mechanical and scientific processes. On the other hand, animations are better suited to demonstrate procedures and processes that involve dynamic movements or changes.
How can you effectively use animated visuals? When using animated visuals, it's important to manage cognitive load. This can be achieved by using cues to direct attention, providing controls to pause and replay, segmenting the content, and providing explanations through audio narration.
How should text be used effectively in instructional environments? Text should be placed near visuals requiring an explanation, otherwise, it's best to omit words. Sentences should be concise, and text should be broken down into small, digestible segments. This allows learners to progress at their own pace in asynchronous e-learning.
What is the effective use of audio in instructional environments? Audio is particularly useful for explaining complex graphics, as it avoids split attention. However, audio narration should be brief, with certain exceptions outlined in chapter 7.
How should audio and text be combined in instructional environments? Avoid having audio narration that simply repeats written text. Instead, narration should expand on short, bulleted text.
What is the power of learning by observation? Humans are inherently designed to learn through observation. This can be utilized to save instructional time by providing examples of task completion. These practical demonstrations, known as 'worked examples' in instructional research, have been proven to be beneficial in learning structured tasks like solving algebraic problems, interpersonal skills like customer service, and critical thinking skills used in problem solving.
How should examples be used for routine tasks? For procedural tasks, worked examples should closely replicate the actual workplace environment. The examples should showcase tasks from the learner's visual perspective, typically an over-the-shoulder view, to mirror the sights and sounds of the workplace.
How should examples be used for strategic tasks? For tasks that involve problem solving or critical thinking, multiple worked examples should be provided. These examples should vary the cover story while illustrating the core guidelines. This approach helps learners understand how to apply the same principles in different situations.
How can learners be engaged with examples? To enhance the processing of examples, learners should be actively engaged. This can be achieved by adding self-explanation questions to the examples or giving assignments that involve comparing different examples.
What is the role of visuals in worked examples? Visuals should be used in worked examples and should be explained with audio or text closely associated with them. This ensures learners can understand the example fully, whether they prefer to learn visually, audibly, or through reading.
What is the difference between behavioral engagement and psychological engagement? Behavioral engagement can sometimes lead to mental overload and hamper learning, while effective behavioral engagement can enhance learning via feedback. Psychological engagement is crucial in learning, as learning happens when learners process and practice content and skills that align with the learning objective.
How can psychological engagement be promoted? To promote psychological engagement, include relevant visuals, worked examples or demonstrations, and personalization techniques in your explanations.
What are some effective behavioral engagement techniques? Effective techniques include incorporating questions into explanations and examples, using interactive tools like clickers during lectures, and assigning relevant collaborative exercises.
How can behavioral engagement be optimized through practice exercises? Ensure that practice exercises align with the learning objective, assign sufficient practice based on the task's criticality, space practice over and among learning events, and mix practice categories when it's important to distinguish when to apply problem-solving strategies.
What is the role of feedback in learning? While some forms of feedback can inhibit learning, effective feedback can enhance it. Effective feedback provides knowledge of results and explains the answer, focuses on ways to improve outcomes, avoids comparing learner outcomes with other learners, and is used by instructors to adapt teaching to individual or group needs.
What is the role of explanations in learning environments? Explanations play a crucial role in almost all learning environments. They can take various forms, such as instructor lectures, online tutorials, workbooks, or hints provided during a game or simulation. They serve as the primary method of conveying information and concepts to learners.
How can explanations be made more engaging? Explanations can be made more engaging by incorporating frequent activities. These activities might include asking questions, linking questions to examples, organizing collaborative exercises, and assigning drawing tasks.
What is the importance of avoiding extraneous cognitive load? Avoiding overloading learners with too much information at once helps maintain learners' attention and prevents them from becoming overwhelmed. This practice minimizes extraneous cognitive load, allowing learners to focus more effectively on the core material being taught.
What is a procedure? A procedure is defined as a task that is executed in a consistent manner each time it is performed. Common examples of routine tasks are logging onto a computer, responding to routine customer transactions, or operating equipment in a consistent manner.
What is the role of performance support in training? Performance support can be used to replace or supplement training. For tasks that involve assembly, visual aids such as graphics or animations have been found to be more efficient for initial performance compared to text.
How should tasks be broken down for teaching? Procedures should be taught in small chunks, ideally between 7 to 12 steps each. However, it is important to ensure that these subtasks are taught in the context of the whole task to maintain overall understanding and continuity.
What is the importance of pre-teaching concepts? It is crucial to teach the necessary concepts for understanding the procedure beforehand. Demonstrating or practicing steps should only be carried out once these critical concepts have been taught.
What is the role of guidance in the learning process? Guidance should be provided during the learning process, in the form of demonstrations, guided practice, and feedback. The level of guidance required will depend on the complexity of the procedure.
What is scenario-based learning? Scenario-based learning is a preplanned, guided inductive learning environment designed to improve expertise. The method is particularly useful for tasks that require critical thinking skills or are challenging to learn on the job due to safety or other factors.
Why is it important to use realistic scenarios in scenario-based learning? Realistic scenarios derived from experts or from archives of work samples should be the driving force of the learning experience. This makes the learning more effective.
What are the key guidance techniques in scenario-based learning? Guidance techniques might include transitioning from simple to complex scenarios, constraining learner control through structured scenario designs like branched scenarios, and providing instructional support such as worked examples and knowledge resources.
What is the role of reflection in scenario-based learning? Techniques that encourage learners to review their decisions and actions and identify lessons learned should be included. These techniques might include collaborative debriefs, comparing the learner's solution with an expert's solution, replaying the scenario, and having the learner articulate the lessons they've learned.
What are serious games? Serious games are those designed with the dual purpose of providing entertainment and facilitating learning.
How should game progress be aligned with learning outcomes? The design of the game should be such that game actions and progress are directly linked to the learning goal. This ensures that as players navigate the game, they are simultaneously navigating towards the desired learning outcome.
What strategies can be used to encourage reflection on lessons learned from a game? Strategies such as collaborative play, comparison of responses or results with expert responses or results, and a learner statement of lessons learned can be employed.
What role does engagement play in learning? Engagement plays a significant role in learning. It helps in better understanding and retention of knowledge.
What is evidence-based practice in training? Evidence-based practice in training involves questioning the features of the method under discussion, the evidence for this method, the validity of the evidence, the appropriateness of the method for the audience, and how the method fits with our understanding of human memory's limits and strengths.
How does the effectiveness of visuals in learning vary? While visuals can be beneficial, their effectiveness depends on several factors, including the type and rendering of the visual, the prior knowledge of the learner, and the instructional objective. Simpler graphics can often be more effective than complex ones.
What is evidence-based practice in training? Evidence-based practice in training involves the use of academic research such as comparison experiments, factorial experiments, correlational studies, and both quantitative and qualitative reviews of research. It also considers adjunct measures like eye tracking and learner ratings of mental load. Factors such as the use of random assignment in experimental studies, the similarity of treatment and control groups, the duration of the experimental lesson, and the characteristics of the learner population are considered.
What are basic principles of human learning? Basic principles of human learning include the influence of experience on memory capacity, the relationship between self-confidence and motivation, the capacity of working memory, and the impact of lesson design on learners' mental load.
How can learning psychology be applied to training? Learning psychology can be applied to training through techniques that direct attention, stimulate integration of new content with existing knowledge, and optimize cognitive load. Understanding the limits of working memory, its relationship with long-term memory, and cognitive load theory can contribute to improved training outcomes.
What is active learning? Active learning involves active engagement, the effectiveness of underlining text as a study strategy, the role of high-engagement games in learning, and the benefits of teach-backs. It highlights the difference between psychological engagement and behavioral engagement, the minimal benefits of underlining, and the importance of game design in promoting the necessary psychological responses for skill achievement.
What role do visuals play in supporting learning? Visuals support learning by aiding in the understanding of content. The effectiveness of a visual depends on the learning goal, the design of the visual, the learners' background knowledge, and their engagement with the visual. Simpler visuals, such as line drawings, are often more effective than realistic depictions.
How can visuals be applied to training? In training, visuals can be used to reinforce the relationships in the lesson. Semantic graphics such as flow charts, tables, or tree diagrams can illustrate multiple topics. It's important to avoid visuals that distract from the learning goal and ensure any graphic standards used are conducive to learning.
What is the role of animations in learning? Animations can be effective in certain learning contexts, particularly for comprehension of processes and procedures involving dynamic motion changes. However, in some cases, still visuals may be more effective. To maximize the benefits of animations, manage mental load by inserting pauses, cues, or brief engagement activities.
How can animations be applied to training? Animations can aid in learning, especially when explaining procedures and dynamic changes. It is suggested that animations should illustrate how to perform a procedure, cover content that involves dynamic motion changes that cannot be shown in still graphics, use an over-the-shoulder perspective, and manage mental load by inserting pauses at logical places and including visual cues such as highlighting.
What are the different versions of visual explanations and their effectiveness? The effectiveness of visual explanations varies. Version A, with clean layout but separate text segments, and Version B, with explanations in text and audio but placed at the bottom of the screen, are deemed ineffective due to split attention. Version C, where the text is integrated into the figure, is effective if audio is not an option. Version D is the most effective, as it uses audio narration to describe a complex visual and displays new technical terms in text callouts placed on the visual.
What guidelines are there for maximizing learning from words? To maximize learning from words, you can use brief audio narration alone to describe a complex visual, use brief audio narration plus a few words in text taken from the narration placed in bullet points nearby the visual, add visual cues to correspond with the narration, and avoid using text sentences and identical narration of those sentences to explain a visual.
What are the benefits of making learning personable? Making learning personable can enhance understanding. It involves using first- and second-person conversational language and the social cues built into the agent. This can also be achieved by being psychologically accessible to learners, which may involve dressing and acting in a manner that makes the audience feel comfortable, maintaining appropriate physical proximity, and encouraging and responding to comments and questions.
How can personalization be applied to online learning? In online learning, personalization can be achieved by using a conversational tone, revealing one's own experiences and opinions, and utilizing learning agents. Collaborative assignments can be used for more challenging tasks that involve problem-solving. Furthermore, generating social presence on discussion boards by calling individuals by name and sharing personal experiences can also contribute to personalization.
What is the 'less is more' approach in lesson planning? In lesson planning, a 'less is more' approach can often lead to better learning outcomes. This involves focusing on a few topics that can be effectively taught in the allotted time, including concise explanations, segmenting content into manageable chunks, and allowing learners to pace themselves. It also involves using simpler visuals, avoiding irrelevant anecdotes, and refraining from adopting high-end technology indiscriminately.
How can examples enhance learning? The use of examples in learning is highly beneficial, particularly in brief learning episodes. Worked examples combined with engagement techniques like self-explanation questions or comparison questions can result in efficient and effective learning. For strategic skills training such as customer service or troubleshooting, multiple context-varied examples reflecting similar guidelines are recommended. The coping model, where an avatar attempts a task, encounters difficulties, and improves through corrective feedback, can be a useful learning tool.
How can examples be applied effectively to training? Examples can be applied effectively to training in several ways. For routine tasks, demonstrations using job-related tools and techniques are beneficial, with animation particularly useful for tasks involving motion. Animated demonstrations should be accompanied by brief audio narration, controls and cueing to manage cognitive load, and should be illustrated from the learner's perspective. For strategic tasks, varied context worked examples are recommended, along with guided comparison tasks. Coping models reflecting common errors and illustrating improvement revisions can be used.
Does more practice result in better learning? Yes, more practice does result in better learning, but the improvements diminish over time due to the power law of practice. Most skill gains occur in the initial few practice sessions.
What factors affect the effectiveness of practice? The effectiveness of practice depends on the task's criticality, the need for automaticity, and how the practice is structured. Practice should be spread throughout a lesson, mixed with different topics, and involve reorganization of content.
How to apply the research on practice to your learning environment? Learning a new skill requires practice, the amount of which depends on the task's complexity and criticality. Practice opportunities should be created that reflect the work environment, favor application exercises, and use realistic job scenarios. Practice should be distributed throughout learning events and the context varied when the goal is to learn both how and when to apply a skill.
What is the role of feedback in learning? Feedback is a powerful instructional method to improve learning. Its effectiveness varies depending on the type of feedback given, how it directs learner attention, and how effectively it focuses on achieving a specific goal. Feedback should provide an explanation, be linked to success criteria, and include information on how to improve.
How to apply feedback to your training? Start a learning event with goals that have specific success criteria. Provide a statement soon after a learner response that includes whether their response is correct or incorrect, a brief explanation for the correct response, and suggestions on how to improve outcomes. Provide progress reports to help learners reflect on strengths and gaps and focus on strategies to improve learning. Constructive criticism that includes improvement suggestions and is delivered in person is also beneficial.
What constitutes effective explanations in learning? Effective explanations in a learning environment involve using techniques such as clickers or virtual polls to engage the audience, relying on relevant and simple visuals to illustrate points, and considering a flipped classroom approach where review of explanations is done prior to class. Explanations should also be brief, segmented into chunks, and accompanied by relevant questions.
What strategies are effective when teaching procedures? Presenting topics in small chunks to prevent mental overload, sequencing facts or concepts related to a procedure prior to task steps, using visuals for performance support, and distributing practice exercises throughout directive lessons are effective strategies for teaching procedures.
How to aid learners in acquiring procedural skills? A directive approach is recommended, especially for novice learners. The lesson should focus on a job task and its associated knowledge topics. Content should be segmented into brief topics, allowing for practice and feedback after each segment. Demonstrations should be accompanied by visuals described by audio or text. Practice exercises should be application-level and distributed throughout the lesson. Prompt, explanatory feedback focusing on learner progress and improvement should be provided.
What are scenario-based lessons? Scenario-based lessons are multimedia lessons that do not require computer simulations, they can be produced with simple branching. They are generally more expensive to develop than explanatory lessons due to their interactivity and complexity.
When should a scenario-based approach be considered? A scenario-based approach should be considered for tasks that involve decision making, critical thinking, or tasks that are challenging to learn in the work environment due to infrequency or safety concerns.
What is the effectiveness of learning games? There is substantial evidence supporting the effectiveness of learning games. However, it's difficult to generalize this as there are many types of games with varying benefits depending on game design, player characteristics, and instructional goals.
What is the role of narratives in games? The impact of narratives on the effectiveness of game-based learning is currently unknown due to insufficient evidence. However, if the narratives are job relevant, such as mini scenarios in a game, they might be both motivational and effective.
What is the difference between social play and solo play? The evidence on whether social play involving competition or collaboration is better than solo play is inconclusive. There are indications of learning and motivational benefits of social play.
How can multimedia principles be applied in game design? There is considerable evidence that basic multimedia principles such as modality and personalization apply to game design. These methods reflect basic human cognitive processes and are applicable to various instructional contexts, including tutorials and games.
How can games be applied to workforce training? Despite the potential of games in learning, there aren't sufficient guidelines for identifying the types of games most useful for workforce learning. Certain features can boost learning in games, such as aligning game rules with learning objectives, providing explanatory feedback, encouraging self-explanations, avoiding complex interfaces, creating opportunities for multiple game plays, providing instructional support, personalizing games with informal language, considering games for skills that benefit from practice, and integrating games into a larger instructional solution.
Glossary
Animated Visuals: Visual graphics that involve dynamic movements or changes. They are effective in demonstrating procedures and processes but require careful management of cognitive load to prevent overwhelming the learner.
Audio: Sound used in instructional methods, particularly useful for explaining complex graphics. Audio narration should be brief and should not simply repeat written text.
Communication Modes: Different ways of presenting content and instructional methods, including text, audio, and graphics. Effective use of these modes is guided by extensive research.
Evidence-Based Training Methods: Training methods that are grounded in empirical research and scientific evidence. They are effective, reliable, and applicable to the participants' needs and contexts.
High Fidelity Examples: Worked examples for procedural tasks that closely replicate the actual workplace environment. They showcase tasks from the learner's visual perspective, mirroring the sights and sounds of the workplace.
Learning by Observation: A learning method that relies on observing practical demonstrations or 'worked examples'. It is effective in learning structured tasks, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking skills.
Personalizing Communication: The practice of using first and second person in text or audio narration to make the communication more engaging and relatable to the learner.
Still Visuals: Graphics that do not involve any movements or changes. They impose less cognitive load than animated visuals and are effective in teaching mechanical and scientific processes.
Text: Written words used in instructional methods. Text should be concise, broken down into small segments, and placed near visuals requiring an explanation.
Varied Context Examples: Multiple worked examples provided for tasks that involve problem solving or critical thinking. These examples vary the cover story while illustrating the core guidelines, helping learners apply the same principles in different situations.
Application of Principles on Text, Audio, and Graphics: The concept that worked examples should be designed using relevant visuals, and these visuals should be explained with audio or text closely associated with them to ensure learners can understand the example fully, whether they prefer to learn visually, audibly, or through reading.
Engagement and Learning: The idea that engagement doesn't always prompt learning. It differentiates between behavioral engagement and psychological engagement, stating effective behavioral engagement can enhance learning via feedback, but if it doesn't align with the learning objective or imposes mental strain, it can inhibit learning.
The Role of Psychological Engagement: The belief that psychological engagement plays a crucial role in learning, irrespective of the presence or absence of behavioral engagement. Learning happens when learners process and practice content and skills that align with the learning objective.
Promoting Psychological Engagement: The act of enhancing psychological engagement by including relevant visuals, worked examples or demonstrations, and personalization techniques in your explanations.
Effective Behavioral Engagement Techniques: Behavioral engagement techniques that have proven effective for learning, such as incorporating questions into explanations and examples, using interactive tools like clickers during lectures, and assigning relevant collaborative exercises.
Optimizing Behavioral Engagement through Practice Exercises: The process of ensuring that practice exercises align with the learning objective, assigning sufficient practice based on the task's criticality, spacing practice over and among learning events, and mixing practice categories when it's important to distinguish when to apply problem-solving strategies.
Productive Feedback for Behavioral Responses: The concept that while some forms of feedback can inhibit learning, effective feedback can enhance it. Effective feedback provides knowledge of results and explains the answer, focuses on ways to improve outcomes, avoids comparing learner outcomes with others, and is used by instructors to adapt teaching to individual or group needs.
Role of Explanations in Learning Environments: The idea that explanations play a crucial role in almost all learning environments. They can take various forms, such as instructor lectures, online tutorials, workbooks, or hints provided during a game or simulation. They serve as the primary method of conveying information and concepts to learners.
Adding Behavioral Engagement to Explanations: The process of making explanations more engaging by incorporating frequent activities such as asking questions, linking questions to examples, organizing collaborative exercises, and assigning drawing tasks.
Promoting Psychological Engagement during Explanations: The act of enhancing psychological engagement during explanations by incorporating relevant graphics and examples, and leveraging social presence.
Avoiding Extraneous Cognitive Load: The practice of preventing learners from becoming overwhelmed by too much information at once by keeping explanations concise and focused. This practice minimizes extraneous cognitive load, allowing learners to focus more effectively on the core material being taught.
Understanding Procedures: A procedure is defined as a task that is executed in a consistent manner each time it is performed. Examples include logging onto a computer, responding to routine customer transactions, or operating equipment in a consistent manner.
Role of Performance Support in Training: The use of performance support to replace or supplement training. For tasks that involve assembly, visual aids such as graphics or animations have been found to be more efficient for initial performance compared to text. However, after several iterations of the task, text and graphics have been found to be equally effective.
Breaking Down Tasks for Teaching: The process of managing cognitive load by teaching procedures in small chunks, ideally between 7 to 12 steps each. However, it is important to ensure that these subtasks are taught in the context of the whole task to maintain overall understanding and continuity.
Importance of Pre-Teaching Concepts: The necessity of teaching the necessary concepts for understanding the procedure beforehand. Demonstrating or practicing steps should only be carried out once these critical concepts have been taught. These concepts should also be shown in the context of the task.
Implementing Guided Practice with Feedback: The act of providing guidance during the learning process, in the form of demonstrations, guided practice, and feedback. The level of guidance required will depend on the complexity of the procedure.
Applying Evidence-Based Practice to Training: The process of questioning the features of a training method, the evidence supporting it, the validity of this evidence, its appropriateness for the audience, and how it aligns with our understanding of human memory's limitations and strengths.
Embedding Guidelines into Training: The process of incorporating domain-specific guidelines into courses that focus on job-relevant tasks to support critical thinking skills.
Encouraging Reflection on Lessons Learned: The use of strategies such as collaborative play, comparison of responses or results with expert responses or results, and a learner statement of lessons learned to encourage conscious awareness of lessons learned.
Incorporating Instructional Methods to Promote Learning: The process of enhancing learning from a game by adding known instructional methods such as job aids, using audio for explanations and feedback, including a pregame exercise to familiarize players with game concepts and interface, giving explanatory feedback, and adding self-explanation questions.
Introduction to Scenario-Based Learning: A preplanned, guided inductive learning environment designed to improve expertise, particularly useful for tasks that require critical thinking skills or are challenging to learn on the job due to safety or other factors.
Introduction to Serious Games: Games designed with the dual purpose of providing entertainment and facilitating learning.
Opportunity for Explicit Reflection: The use of techniques that encourage learners to review their decisions and actions and identify lessons learned, such as collaborative debriefs, comparing the learner's solution with an expert's solution, replaying the scenario, and having the learner articulate the lessons they've learned.
Providing Sufficient Guidance: The use of guidance techniques in scenario-based learning, such as transitioning from simple to complex scenarios, constraining learner control through structured scenario designs like branched scenarios, and providing instructional support such as worked examples and knowledge resources.
Reducing Complexity to Enhance Learning: The process of simplifying the game's interface to avoid extraneous cognitive load and minimizing any narrative themes or mental work not directly related to the learning objective.
The Importance of Realistic Scenarios: The need to use experts to identify realistic scenarios and the thought processes required to resolve them in effective scenario-based learning.
Training Fads and Fables: A segment that debunks common misconceptions about learning styles, instructional methods, and student ratings, emphasizing that learning effectiveness depends on the best use of basic instructional methods, not on the medium.
What is Evidence-Based Practice?: The understanding of how visuals can be beneficial in learning, but their effectiveness depends on several factors, including the type and rendering of the visual, the prior knowledge of the learner, and the instructional objective.
Active Learning: A learning approach that involves the learner by incorporating activities such as reading, writing, discussion, or problem solving to promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content.
Animations: A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures or frames. In learning, it's particularly effective for comprehension of processes and procedures involving dynamic motion changes.
Behavioral Engagement: The degree to which learners are actively involved in learning activities, such as the level of attention, interest, and effort learners display in the learning process.
Boundary Conditions: The specific contexts or conditions under which a certain theory or finding applies.
Cognitive Load: The total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory.
Correlational Studies: Research that studies the relationship between two or more variables.
Evidence-Based Practice: The conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual learners or the design of educational programs.
Experience: The knowledge or mastery of an event or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.
Eye Tracking: The process of measuring either the point of gaze (where one is looking) or the motion of an eye relative to the head.
Factorial Experiments: Experiments whose design consists of two or more factors, each with discrete possible values or 'levels', and whose experimental units take on all possible combinations of these levels across all such factors.
Long-Term Memory: The system or phase of memory where information is stored for more than a few minutes and may be accessed over a period of hours, days, weeks, or years.
Mental Load: The amount of cognitive (mental) resources, such as working memory, being used at a particular moment.
Psychological Engagement: The cognitive and emotional investment in learning. It involves a sense of commitment to learning, a willingness to make an effort, and active involvement in learning.
Random Assignment: A procedure in creating experiments in which each participant has the same chance of being assigned to any given group. It reduces bias and ensures that differences in the groups can be attributed to the treatment.
Self-Confidence: Belief in one's personal ability or capacity to do things effectively.
Visuals: Images or designs used to support or enhance the understanding of a lesson's content.
Working Memory: The part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.
Applying Explanations to Your Training: A method of enhancing learning by using brief audio narration or a combination of audio narration and bullet points to describe complex visuals. This method discourages the use of text sentences with identical narration for explaining visuals, especially when introducing new technical terms or lengthy explanations.
Make Learning Personable: A strategy to enhance understanding by incorporating social cues and conversational language in learning materials. This includes focused gestures, first- and second-person language, and cues built into the learning agent.
Applying Personalization to Your Training: A method of improving learning outcomes by leveraging human unconscious instincts to process information with social cues. This can be done by being psychologically accessible to learners, using a conversational tone, sharing personal experiences, and utilizing learning agents.
A Personalization Checklist: A list of strategies for personalizing learning, including using first- and second-person language, maintaining a polite conversational tone, sharing personal experiences, offering opportunities for social engagement, using online agents that project social cues, and using a friendly voice for narration.
When Less Is More: The Bottom Line: An approach to lesson planning that emphasizes simplicity and focus for better learning outcomes. This involves careful selection and placement of stories and visuals, and avoiding disruption caused by unnecessary additional content.
Applying Less Is More to Your Training: A method of training that focuses on teaching a few topics effectively in the allotted time, using concise explanations, segmenting content, allowing self-pacing, using simpler visuals, and avoiding irrelevant anecdotes.
Accelerate Expertise With Examples: A method of enhancing learning by using worked examples combined with engagement techniques like self-explanation questions or comparison questions. This method is particularly effective for strategic skills training such as customer service or troubleshooting.
Applying Examples to Training: A strategy of using examples, demonstrations, and models in training to enhance learning. This includes using animations for tasks involving motion, varied context worked examples for strategic tasks, and coping models to illustrate common errors and improvements. Engagement is encouraged through adjunct questions, guided comparisons, and feedback.
Power Law of Practice: A psychological phenomenon that suggests the rate of learning improves with increased practice, but the improvements diminish over time. Most skill gains occur in the initial few practice sessions.
Criticality: The importance or relevance of a task. The more critical a task is, the more practice it may require.
Automaticity: The ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit.
Feedback: Information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self, experience) regarding aspects of one's performance or understanding.
Success Criteria: Specific objectives that are used to measure the effectiveness of a task performance or learning process.
Effective Explanations: Clear, concise, and well-structured information that helps learners understand a concept better.
Flipped Classroom: An instructional strategy and a type of blended learning that reverses the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of the classroom.
Teaching Procedures: A set of actions conducted in a certain order or manner, aimed at teaching a particular skill or concept.
Directive Approach: An instructional approach where the teacher provides clear, strong guidance on what information is important and how it is linked.
Mixed Practice: A practice methodology where multiple skills or subjects are combined within a single practice session.
Applying Games to Workforce Training: The use of games in learning to enhance workforce skills. While there are no specific guidelines for identifying the types of games most useful for workforce learning, certain features can boost learning in games, such as aligning game rules with learning objectives, providing explanatory feedback, avoiding complex interfaces, and integrating games into a larger instructional solution.
Applying Scenario-Based Learning: A learning approach that involves decision making and critical thinking tasks. It involves starting with a work-authentic assignment or scenario, providing clear learner response options, and offering guidance that fades as learners gain experience.
Effectiveness of Learning Games: A measure of how well learning games enhance the learning process. The effectiveness varies depending on game design, player characteristics, and instructional goals, and is supported by substantial evidence, primarily focusing on younger learners with traditional educational topics.
Multimedia scenario-based lessons: A type of lesson that uses multimedia and does not require computer simulations. They are generally more expensive to develop due to their interactivity and complexity, but they improve learning.
Role of Narratives in Games: The influence that narratives have on the effectiveness of game-based learning. While the impact is currently unknown due to insufficient evidence, job-relevant narratives such as mini scenarios in a game might be both motivational and effective.
Social Play vs Solo Play: A comparison of the learning and motivational benefits of social play involving competition or collaboration and solo play. The evidence is inconclusive, suggesting potential benefits for learning games, but requiring future research to identify the learning goals and types of learners that benefit from either collaboration or competition in games.
Teaching Critical Thinking With Problem Scenarios: The process of teaching critical thinking skills through the use of problem scenarios. This method involves learner practice and feedback and may use realistic multimedia in scenario-based environments to improve learning.
Application of Multimedia Principles in Game Design: The use of basic multimedia principles such as modality and personalization in game design. These principles reflect basic human cognitive processes and are applicable to various instructional contexts, including tutorials and games.
Resources
Book - Evidence-Based Training Methods: This book introduces the concept of evidence-based training methods. These methods are grounded in empirical research and scientific evidence, ensuring that they are effective and reliable. It also discusses the practical application of these methods, the challenges in implementing them, and future directions in this area.
Article - Communication Modes and Their Effective Use: This article discusses how instructional environments utilize a combination of text, audio, and graphics to present content and instructional methods. It provides guidelines on how to effectively use these modes in teaching and learning.
Article - Comparison Between Stills and Animations: This article compares the effectiveness of still visuals and animated visuals in teaching and learning. It provides insights on when to use each type of visual and how to manage cognitive load when using animated visuals.
Article - Effective Use of Text and Audio in Instructional Design: This article provides tips on how to effectively use text and audio in instructional design. It discusses where to place text, how to make sentences concise, and how to use audio to explain complex graphics.
Book - The Power of Learning by Observation: This book discusses how humans are inherently designed to learn through observation. It introduces the concept of 'worked examples' in instructional research and provides guidelines on how to use them in teaching and learning.
Book - Scenario-Based Learning: Using Stories To Engage e-Learners: This book provides a comprehensive overview of scenario-based learning, including the importance of realistic scenarios, embedding guidelines into training, providing sufficient guidance, and the opportunity for explicit reflection.
Article - The Role of Serious Games in Educational Settings: This article discusses the concept of serious games, their alignment with learning outcomes, reducing complexity to enhance learning, encouraging reflection on lessons learned, and incorporating instructional methods to promote learning.
Book - Training Fads and Fables: Debunking Learning Myths: This book debunks common misconceptions about learning styles, instructional methods, and student ratings. It also discusses the role of engagement in learning and the effectiveness of games as instructional methods.
Article - Applying Evidence-Based Practice to Training: This article emphasizes the importance of being a critical consumer of training recommendations. It discusses questioning the features of the method under discussion, the evidence for this method, the validity of the evidence, the appropriateness of the method for the audience, and how the method fits with our understanding of human memory's limits and strengths.
Book - Understanding Visuals in Learning: This book discusses the role of visuals in learning. It clarifies that while visuals can be beneficial, their effectiveness depends on several factors, including the type and rendering of the visual, the prior knowledge of the learner, and the instructional objective.
Book - The Power Law of Practice: This book explains the concept of the power law of practice, which states that the more you practice a skill, the better you get, but the rate of improvement decreases over time. It provides insights into how to optimize practice sessions for effective learning.
Article - The Effectiveness of Practice: A Literature Review: This article reviews various studies on the effectiveness of practice in learning. It discusses how the effectiveness of practice depends on factors such as the task's complexity and criticality, and the need for automatic responses.
Website - Feedback in Learning: This website provides resources on how to give effective feedback in a learning environment. It discusses how feedback can improve learning and motivation, and provides tips on how to provide feedback that is constructive and focused on achieving specific goals.
Video - Effective Explanations in Learning: This video discusses the key aspects of effective explanations in a learning environment. It provides tips on how to engage the audience, use visuals to illustrate points, and segment longer explanations into manageable chunks.
Book - Teaching Procedures Effectively: This book provides evidence-based strategies for teaching procedures effectively. It discusses techniques such as presenting topics in small chunks, sequencing related facts or concepts before task steps, and distributing practice exercises throughout lessons.
Article - Methods for Teaching Procedures: This article discusses various methods for teaching procedures. It recommends a directive approach, especially for novice learners, and provides tips on how to structure lessons, provide practice exercises, and give feedback.
Book - Teaching Critical Thinking With Problem Scenarios: This book provides insights on how to use multimedia scenario-based lessons to teach critical thinking. It discusses the importance of feedback, the use of realistic multimedia, and the challenges of updating such lessons.
Article - Applying Scenario-Based Learning: This article discusses the use of a scenario-based approach for tasks that involve decision making and critical thinking. It provides guidelines on how to structure the lessons, provide feedback, and ensure a full range of knowledge and skills.
Research - Effectiveness of Learning Games: This research provides evidence supporting the effectiveness of learning games. It discusses the varying benefits depending on game design, player characteristics, and instructional goals.
Article - Role of Narratives in Games: This article discusses the potential impact of narratives on the effectiveness of game-based learning. It suggests that job-relevant narratives might be both motivational and effective.
Research - Social Play vs Solo Play: This research explores whether social play involving competition or collaboration is better than solo play. It suggests potential benefits of social play and calls for future research.
Article - Application of Multimedia Principles in Game Design: This article discusses the application of basic multimedia principles such as modality and personalization in game design. It suggests that these methods are applicable to various instructional contexts.
Research - Applying Games to Workforce Training: This research discusses the potential of games in workforce learning. It provides insights on how to boost learning in games and integrate games into a larger instructional solution.
