Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2018 - 41

Do you want your virtual training
sessions to result in longer-term impact?
As trainers, we can learn much from
neuroscientists about how to strengthen
connections between the neurons in the
brains of our learners.
These four steps describe the learning
process (See Figure 1 on page 42):
* Learn it (You are exposed to new
information)
* Encode it (You begin to transfer that
information from short-term to longterm memory)
* Recall it (You retrieve it from shortterm or long-term memory)
* Apply it (You firmly anchor that new
knowledge in long-term memory)
The best training applies these steps to
ensure maximum knowledge retention
and skill development. Here are six
brain-based principles that can help
you increase learning retention in your
web workshops.

PRIME THE PUMP

Get the learning experience started even
before the training begins by addressing
your learners' ABCs:
* Attitude: Before they arrive at your
webinar, send a message welcoming
them to the program with positive
statements such as, "This web
workshop will be engaging, fun, and
productive. I guarantee you will take

away practical tools that will help
you complete your tasks more
effectively." Your positive attitude
prepares their brains for a pleasant,
supportive experience.
* Behavior:
Share
the
learning
objectives and make sure they are
focused on results (not activities they
will participate in during the webinar).
Include a testimonial video featuring
a success story from a past workshop.
* Cognitive: Provide a challenging case
study to show what knowledge can be
gained during the session. Consider
giving them a quick quiz to test their
current knowledge.

CHUNK IT DOWN

Your challenge is to get and keep people's
attention in the virtual classroom. With
the trend toward microlearning, shorter
content segments are often better. In
the virtual classroom, however, you can
successfully hold your learners' attention
on one topic for 10 to 15 minutes, as long
as you aren't lecturing the whole time.
For example, in a leadership program
for remote managers, we show a twominute video featuring an inspiring
company where employees love their
jobs. We invite participants to ask
themselves while watching: "What is the
most important takeaway about your
virtual team's motivation?" Participants
then type their significant takeaway in
a chat pod, which we debrief aloud. We
follow that with the learning point that
for many, work has little value unless it

contributes to a higher purpose. Then
we ask these remote managers to reflect
on a new question, "How will you adapt
your actions as a virtual leader to help
people understand the purpose of their
work?" The learning process in this
10-minute content segment consists of
a short video, discussion question, key
concept, self-reflection and commitment
to action.
In a 60-minute web workshop, you might
have four or five content segments.
At the end of each 10- to 15-minute
segment, review and summarize, or have
participants put what they've learned in
their own words.

MIX IT UP

You've probably heard about the
forgetting curve: people forget 90
percent of what they've learned within
one week of a training session. Our
brains are wired to ignore or forget
anything that is considered redundant
or irrelevant. This filtering function is
actually a survival mechanism. We are
flooded with extraneous information in
every moment.
As John Medina explains in his
compelling book, Brain Rules, "People
don't pay attention to boring things."
When we design and deliver learning
activities, we must introduce novelty,
humor and surprise. Think of the last
flight you took where the attendant
delivered the same safety demonstration
you've heard a million times. You might
have turned to the in-flight magazine for
entertainment instead of watching. But

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

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2018