Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
Does taking a 15 minute eLearning course on how to use a welding torch sound drawn-out? How about a 5 minute course?
Well, the fact is that time really shouldn’t be the deciding factor. But, wait a minute (or should I say what seems like a minute?). Your time is valuable. It’s not the actual time that passes while a learner experiences a course that we should be concerned with most. It’s the amount of time learners feel passed while experiencing a course that matters.
You’ve heard the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Of course you have. It’s true. Sit down and write out the track list for the mix you’re going to give your girlfriend/boyfriend and tell me it doesn’t feel like you just watched mold grow on that leftover Chinese you have in the fridge. Now go and listen to that mix in your car while having an engaging conversation with her/him. I’ll bet you the mix will come to an end and it’ll feel like time flew by. There’s no way it took you longer to write out those tracks than it took to listen to them, but it can sure feel like it. (Side Note: When making a mix for your significant other, make a track listing. I get in trouble if I don’t list the tracks… title and artists)
The other day I was reading an article in the New York Times that was relevant.
The sensation of passing time can be very different, Dr. Zauberman said, depending on what you think about, and how. In fact, scientists are not sure how the brain tracks time. One theory holds that it has a cluster of cells specialized to count off intervals of time; another that a wide array of neural processes act as an internal clock. Either way, studies find, this biological pacemaker has a poor grasp of longer intervals. Time does seem to slow to a trickle during an empty afternoon and race when the brain is engrossed in challenging work. Stimulants, including caffeine, tend to make people feel as if time is passing faster; complex jobs, like doing taxes, can seem to drag on longer than they actually do.
I prefer taurine, but what I’m getting at is course creators should focus on creating content that is engaging and involves the learner. Never just list information. These types of courses test short term memory over actual understanding. Your learners will just skim your content and forget it. Immerse learners in a stream of activities that contains to-the-point information and watch retention rates rise. Training magazine featured a study by NTL Institute that brought this point home for me. It said,
People retain 5% of what they hear, 10% of what they read, and 20% of what they see & hear in audio-visual presentations. Add interaction/practice by doing & teach others then retention rates shoot up to 75 to 80%.
Hmm… Maybe this is why I didn’t do as well in my 900 student lecture class on finance. I thought it was all those equations I had to memorize… yeah, could of been those too. Anyway, some high-stimulus content can go a long way to increase your learners’ retention rates, which will improve their knowledge base and performance on the job. We shouldn’t stop at just designing courses for our learners. We need to design experiences. And when we do, that’s when time starts to fly.
Here’s a reinforcement activity Hardly Square created for the BernzOmatic QuickFire torch eLearning course. This activity comes after the product information has been demonstrated, but before the actual assessment. The goal is to review pertinent information while involving the learner. We want our retention rates to “shoot up” as the NTL Institute stated.
We were fortunate enough to have the product in hand (literally). This allowed us to plan our application photography shoot to include the necessary imagery to design this Flash animation. These are the eLearning solutions that promote longterm remembering with your learners.
If you have an experience you’d like to share about eLearning courses you’ve created or taken please share. I’d love to hear about them.
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