Session 211 - Using Brain Science to Increase Learning Retention and ROI (Art Kohn)

Intro
What is the goal of training overall?  Is it to learn? Is it to comply?  NO.  It's to create CHANGE.  To create a change in behavior that will be best for those in your organization.  Art Kohn is a professor who works with two arms: The CDC combating HIV and Google leveraging learning technology that really works via ASPIRE.  (Incredible)

ASPIRE
Assessment of Corporate Needs
Self Inventory of the Learner
Personal Learning Path
Interactive Training Experiences
Reinforcement of Memory
Evidence of Efficacy

It's not enough to transfer information, you must retain training for use in enacting change (behavioral) later.


Scenario/After the Training
You went to a 1 hour session...amazing, phenomenal, meaningful - Great.

What percent of knowledge will be retained TOMORROW? Well, you lose 50% the first hour, 70% the first day, and 90% the first week later. Remember - "What you do AFTER training is more important than what you do DURING training."

THESE NUMBERS SHOULD BE PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING TO ALL OF US

Demographic, age, IQ, etc...none of this matters - The same rate of loss has been proven across ALL audiences.  What can we do to create inertia so that all the material isn't lost. If you don't have a system of after-training, your knowledge WILL BE LOST.


The Forgetting Curve
Forgetting is the failure of memory.  In neuroscience, we don't think that way - Instead, forgetting is an active, intentional process.  Your brain ACTIVELY seeks to forget information.  Forgetting is adaptive - It's an essential part of memory.

What's your hotel room #?  Sure...you can do that. What was your previous hotel room's number?  Can't remember it, can you?  THAT'S GOOD! If you remembered every hotel room number, it would interfere with current information.

You can't store everything - Previous information combats with new information and, so, your brain has to actively forget information that's run its course.


Information In The Sensory World
Your sleeve on your arm, the sound of the air conditioning, the hum of the speaker - You have to selectively ignore stimuli...it's how the brain works.  It needs to.

(My thought - In thinking about my young son who is on ASD spectrum, this helps me understand all the more.  Perhaps there's an element to his inability to defer a number of those environmental stimuli).

How does your brain make the decision to eliminate that information?


Use It Or Lose It
What the brain does is, when new information comes in, it has all of this information stored.  If in the hours, days after that information adoption, your brain will, in a way, 'metatag' it to recall later - It identifies that it's useful.  BUT if you don't use it, your brain tags it for 'disposal' (for lack of a better word).  When you don't actively use the material, you LOSE the material.

How do our training sessions run?  You bring the new hire in, present them with your two days of material, all smiles/all energy.  They come back to their desk and start fielding emails...reports...other tasks.  Two weeks later, despite your material being AMAZING, their brain ends up throwing that information away.  Their brain has made no use of the info post-acquisition.


How Do We Overcome the Forgetting Curve
The gold standard would be, in the case of training, that Student X goes back to her office after training and her manager comes in and asks her to tell them all about it and explain why it's relevant.  The next day after, same interaction, deeper information...and so on, and so on.  "The Long Tail of Knowledge" exemplified...get the people talking about their information that will cause it to stick.  Unfortunately, this is rarely possible for a number of different reasons.

Say it again: "What you do after training is more important than what you do during training."


Booster Events, etc.
If you administer a 'booster event' the day after training, it resets your brain's clock to eliminate the newfound knowledge.  Administer another one a couple days later...begin to space it out...and you get it.  But what's a booster event?

Kohn created learning for Verizon including this booster approach - The boosters were administered via smartphone, announcing a new training quiz that will tickle the knowledge they gained...1, 2, maybe 3 questions, just to stoke the flames.  The learner will need to go back in their knowledge, via EFFORTFUL RECALL, and keep that knowledge alive in the brain.  This is what causes previously learned information to stick. The best part - It doesn't matter if they get it right or wrong, so long as you provide feedback.

Questions, polls,    - All types of 'boosters', so long as it touches on the taught information. Poll results will help them consider their opinion/knowledge compared to others.  If you deliver training and reinforce it, it will be recalled.  If you deliver training and DON'T reinforce it, you are committing TRAINING MALPRACTICE.

60-70 BILLION dollars a year in training...and that flushing sound?  That's us doing THE SAME THING WE'VE ALWAYS DONE. "I've got a hole in my gas tank and my car's about to stop?  Boy, I better fill up with premium!" We are the only practitioners of craft who behave like this?  Actors get up on stage, rehears the play once, and have opening night?  Musicians just read the music and can play it instantly?  NO - It takes reinforcement, practice, ongoing improvement...


Optimal Duration of Booster
Here's the data:

The Duration of a cognitive booster DOES NOT MATTER.  Whether it is 5 seconds, 30 seconds, or 5 minutes...IT DOES NOT MATTER.  They've LEARNED it, you've TAUGHT it...you don't need to teach it again.  You simply need to cause the learner to THINK about the material they have come into contact with.  Make sure your people come back into contact with the material that you've shown them in the days to come, or they will LOSE IT.

Say it again: YOU DON'T NEED TO RETEACH, YOU NEED TO REMIND.

The 5 second option is the best - It costs least, encourages the most interaction (everyone will give you 5 seconds), and provides the same recall as 30 seconds and 5 minutes.

What's amazing is, once you're boosted, you remember that information and you don't want to go without it! 


Art's Promise
He's going to post boosters to a URL, encourages us to visit it days, weeks, a month after and be amazed by the recall provided by a booster.


Applying the Data
On April 1, you read a chapter.  You have an exam on April 16.  What should you do between now and then?

a. Re-read the chapter
b. Review chapter highlights
c. Write a chapter summary
d. Answer practice question

RESEARCH HAS SHOWN that A and B provide -0- ROI.  0. Zero.

Writing the chapter summary is effective but VERY time intensive.

D...answering the practice questions...provide the best reinforcement of data/memory of content.  Professors - Give a lecture, Ask questions.


2+2+2 - 2 Days, 2 Weeks, 2 Months
At 2 days, start sending out your cognitive boosters.  Send out 3 or 4 boosts if you held a seminar...2 days, 5 days, 8 days.  Do you need to boost every piece of knowledge? "No...just what you want them to remember." ;-) Create the course and the after-course as a unified whole to guarantee long-term retention.

At 2 weeks, start a different boost - Social boost.  Send out questions like "How do you handle __________? What techniques do you use to deal with that?"  Allow for upvoting, comments, etc. so that there's a true social engagement to enable the "WE > ME" factor.  When you boost, you still get "Top Down" knowledge transfer, but Parallel as well.

At 2 months, send out a different kind of question.  "Two months ago, we gave you an anger management seminar - Can you provide an example of how you've used that in our company?"  The examples will illustrate how the retained knowledge has led to changed practice (not to mention ROI, if the angry customer buys a refrigerator)...

...and CHANGE is the ultimate goal of training.


The Session Boost
goo.gl/mcaxpb

That URL will start the boosting tomorrow (10/24).  eLearning Guild - If you're listening, EVERY SESSION SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!!


In Conclusion
It has been a LONG, LONG, LONG time since I've been this inspired by a concept.  Something that seems so simple and familiar (I've quipped innumerable times about the long tail of learning) was just made SO absolutely clear, I can't believe it. This was BEYOND inspiring, BEYOND meaningful, and should be ABSOLUTE canon to EVERYONE in this industry.