LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (L&D) EXPERTS AND CORPORATE TRAINING PROFESSIONALS SPEND COUNTLESS HOURS DESIGNING PROGRAMS THAT ARE INTENDED TO HELP EMPLOYEES LEARN VALUABLE SKILLS, ALL IN THE HOPES THAT IT WILL MAKE THEM BETTER AT THEIR JOBS. THIS INTENTIONAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS BOTH THE EMPLOYEE AND THE ORGANIZATION IN A MYRIAD OF WAYS. The ever-evolving world of talent development has largely moved online, and in recent years it has seen plenty of innovation, making learning about all sorts of topics easier and more effective. In 2018, a lot is going right in the world of instructional design. More organizations are adopting microlearning methods, which give employees flexibility and control over their training. Well-produced microlearning takes long-form content and adapts it for short-form learning, which helps employees remember more of what is being taught. CAN'T BE OVERLOOKED BY DEREK SMITH One of the biggest challenges that will continue to dominate corporate training conversations is how organizations and learners can overcome the forgetting curve - the brain's natural loss of information that isn't being used. The forgetting curve is nothing new; in fact, the theory was first introduced in the late 19th century by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. Ebbinghaus gathered data about learning retention over time and discovered that the brain's retention of information starts to fall drastically within just the first 24 hours. Studies suggest that as much as 90 percent of information is forgotten within 30 days, and 70 percent of that loss happens within one day. When you factor in the $160 billion annual budget that US businesses put into training, T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - GIVING LEARNING A BOOST 20 18 I WWW. T RAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE | 17https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine