Immersive learning is the next revolution in training
Withholding information
Can you remember at least 3 things you learned from the last training course you attended?
(If yes, did your training end a few hours ago?)
If you’re unable to, rest assured, you’re just falling prey to the “Forgetting Curve”, a phenomenon brought to light by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist of the late XIXᵉ century.
He has shown that in less than an hour, a person forgets an average of 50% of the information presented to them. Within 24 hours, this falls to 70%, and within a month, 90% are forgotten.
Ouch.
And that’s not all. Ebbinghaus didn’t foresee that we’d have an exponential amount of information to process on a daily basis compared to his time. He also didn’t know that during a course, a training session, in the middle of a MOOC or during a video, we’d be disturbed by a notification, email or SMS and that in less than 10 minutes, we ‘d lose all attention (and that’s optimistic, some studies even talk about a few seconds!).
Forgetting is not a brain defect. It’s a natural adaptive behavior that consists in sorting out useful information from that which is no longer needed.
So, does this mean that no matter how hard you try to design a training program, all its content and what you want to convey will simply dissipate in the learners’ brains? Spoiler: No, not quite. This means that training and education professionals need to make better use of the learning solutions available to them, to ensure a better anchorage.
But what are these solutions?
The 4 characteristics of the most effective learning experiences
We have listed the 4 characteristics of the most effective learning experiences (without taking into account the organizational and cultural contexts present in companies).
- Their content inevitably attracts learners’attention
- They enable experimentation, practice and “Learning by Doing“.
- They exploit the most natural way for humans to learn: play.
- They are easily accessible and allow for repetition and the right to make mistakes.
Are there any teaching solutions that perfectly combine these characteristics? Maybe not.
But one of them deserves a closer look, as it is becoming less and less costly for companies, trainers and teachers alike.
The #EdTech (technologies for education and training) ecosystem has exploded in recent years. You’re probably familiar with Serious Games, Virtual Classrooms, Mobile Learning and other MOOCs and COOCs, but have you ever heard ofImmersive Learning?
Immersive Learning = Simulated and controlled learning situation x Virtual Reality
The benefits of virtual reality (VR)
Virtual Reality puts people in real-life situations, without the constraints of reality: logistics, risk of failure, real time and little room for error.
Here’s a comparison of the learning solutions typically offered in training programs in the Learning Solutions Comparison Grid.
Immersive Learning uses technology to optimize the brain’s learning process. It won’t replace existing solutions, but will enhance your learning experiences and increase their effectiveness.
