10 ways to maximize corporate training

Nicole Wilson is the founder and president of KnowProgress, a consulting firm serving EdTech companies and other learning organizations in their quest to create powerful, empirically

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Creating a Transformative Culture of Learning

Dr Nicole Wilson is the founder and president of

KnowProgress, a consulting firm serving EdTech

companies and other learning organizations in their quest

to create powerful, empirically effective learning

experiences

Nicole has led the development of several highly

successful elearning and assessment products for industry

leaders including Pearson, Open English, and Rosetta

Stone

She has a Ph.D in cognitive psychology from the

University of California, Santa Cruz, and taught there as a

faculty member for nine years.

 Welcome & Warm Ups

 The Problem: Retention crisis in corporate training

 The Solutions: 10 ways to improve corporate learning

 Q&A

Source:

 Welcome & Warm Ups

 The Problem: Retention crisis in corporate training

 The Solutions: 10 ways to improve corporate learning

 Q&A

 Objective: Give participants an understanding of 10

science-based strategies for improving learning from corporate training.

 Get ready to roll up your sleeves and actively

participate throughout.

 There will be a test.

(By the end of the webinar, you’ll understand why that’s a good thing.)

Warm Up No 1: Arrive

Take 60 seconds to settle in and

make yourself physically

comfortable.

Warm Up No 2: Reflect

Why are you here?

Take 90 seconds to jot down

some of the challenges you or

your organization has faced in

making your corporate training

impactful.

Share your thoughts in the

webinar chat.

 Welcome & Warm Ups

 The Problem: Retention crisis in corporate training

 The Solutions: 10 ways to improve corporate learning

 Q&A

Pop Quiz

1 How much do North American companies spend on

corporate training annually?

2 What percentage of new skills are lost within one

year?

The Problem

 North American companies spend an estimated $140 billion annually

on corporate training

 90 percent of new skills are lost within a year

Source: Wall Street Journal

Retention = Initial Learning – Learning Loss

Emphasize motivation and active learning to boost engagement and efficacy

Structure the learning experience

to skills and knowledge for the

long term

Retention = Initial Learning – Learning Loss

 Welcome & Warm Ups

 The Problem: Retention crisis in corporate training

 The Solutions: 10 ways to improve corporate learning

 Q&A

10 Ways to Increase Retention

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Q: What Do You Need to Be Your Best?

A: A lot…

But start with your biological needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Get Nature on Your Side

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Use narrative

 Once upon a time

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Make Training Personal

We cannot remember what we’re

not paying attention to in the first

place!

Learning is a reflexive process:

new knowledge must be tied into

existing knowledge

Increasing Relevance

 Provide context and rationale for training

 Strive for the right level of difficulty

Use assessments to determine learners’ initial knowledge

level

 Link new content to existing knowledge and

experiences

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Imagine that you are experiencing this webinar as a text transcript

Multimodal & Interactive Learning

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Example: An Alternative, Project-Based Approach

to Covering this Webinar’s Content

 Review the company’s current quarterly training workshops.

 Analyze how well they reflect best practices in learning.

 Create a proposal for updating the company’s training strategy to support employee

engagement and long-term retention.

 You and a team of 3 colleagues have 4 weeks to complete this project,

with the support of a facilitator who will guide you and provide feedback

along the way.

Key Facets of Problem and

Project-Based Learning

 Learners master content and skills in the context of solving a

carefully-crafted real-world problem or case study.

 Teams work together to define and solve smaller challenges, with facilitator’s help

 Learning activities stretch over longer periods of time

 Challenges culminate with authentic products (project-based

learning) or authentic solutions (problem-based learning)

 Edutopia.org is a great resource for learning more about problem and project-based learning

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Strategies for Active Learning

 Encourage learners to ask “Why?”

 Flip the classroom

 Thought experiments

 Games

 Mini challenges

 Drawing

Example: “Why Ask Why?”

 You’ve just been told that encouraging learners to

respond to new concepts by asking “Why?” leads to better memory.

 Ask yourself “Why might that be?”

10 Ways to Increase Retention

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Before (Learning) After

Preview what they are

about to learn Remind them what they just learned

Frame the Learning Experience

10 Ways to Increase Retention

Pop Quiz Revisited

1 How much do North American companies spend on corporate training annually?

2 What percentage of new skills are lost within one

year?

If you remember these statistics, thank the pre-test!

The Retrieval Practice Effect

 “If you’re not thinking, you’re not learning”—mental

effort is key

 Repeated quizzing strengthens learners’ memory better

than simple repetition

 Testing doesn’t have to be high stakes: self-testing, polling, and other informal methods can work well

10 Ways to Increase Retention

“Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

-Vince Lombardi

Mix It Up

 Interleaving: practicing different concepts together in a single

session improves real-world performance

vs

Spread It Out

 Spaced Practice: practicing concepts in several short sessions

instead of one marathon boosts retention

vs

Space Sessions Thoughtfully

 Optimal Intervals-letting the learner do some forgetting

between practice sessions strengthens memory

vs.

vs.

Final Quiz

What are the 3 categories for ways to improve learning? Name as many items in each category as you can (There are 10 total.)

Thank you!

For more information, visit lynda.com

Q&A