Effective Learning

How may times have you attended a "training program" and at the end of the presentation wondered if you had actually learned anything? I know I have. It wasn't because I was daydreaming that I did not learn as much as I had hoped, it is that the modern business culture has confused "presentation" with "education." There is a big difference between the outcomes of a presentation and an effective educational experience; a presentation only suggests learning, but education requires learning as a core purpose and outcome. I believe one reason for this confusion stems from the ease of which we are enamored by visual stimuli. In other words, when someone makes a nifty multimedia slide presentation we assume that its apparent complexity promotes efficient information transfer. Unfortunately, the visual appeal of a presentation is much less important than the "function" of the presentation.

An educational program has only one function - to provide employees with a systematic experience with new rules enabling the application of those rules to new or diverse situations. If this function does not occur the training program is not educational. It might be entertaining, enjoyable, and even thought provoking, but if the program does not influence your behavior in meaningful ways, the educational process has occurred.

Demonstration of learning is an often overlooked feature of the educational process. How many times have you received a "certificate of training" for sitting in your chair and staring forward for a few hours? The only certification of this style of learning is that you were physically present in the room. Real education requires demonstration of skill. While the practical problems of individual demonstration of learning are considerable, especially in large groups, the fact is that until we see evidence of improved action, we have no valid measure that learning has occurred. It may appear relatively easy and efficient for a presenter to deliver a training program to large groups of people, but the efficiency is illusory as no evidence of any real education has occurred.

It is easy to malign the standard presentation process. But what can be done to make education more effective while retaining its efficiency?

When you really want your employees to learn something, divide the material into small modules so that employees can complete each module in less than twenty minutes. Ask employees questions that provide a reasonable indication that they can apply this knowledge to new situations. Time the test so that they must demonstrate a reasonable level of fluency with the information. Use a variety of question formats, such as fill-in the blank, matching, exclusion, etc., as each kind of question demonstrates a different kind of understanding. If you really want your employees to learn, you need to validate the educational process by observing and recording your employees' behavior on an individual basis.