Evidence-Informed Learning Design summary

Introduction

Evidence-Informed Learning Design by Mirjam Neelan and Paula Kirchner Design Effective Learning Experiences Backed by Science and Research What exactly is in it for you? How can you take your learning experience design skills to the next level? We live in a world with seemingly endless learning possibilities. Just a few decades ago, it was difficult to imagine.

We now have a huge amount of often free learning resources. They are just a click of the mouse away. But while learning has become more easily accessible, that does not always extend to the workplace. Executives around the world bemoan the lack of essential skills among employees.

This endangers growth, which is where learning professionals come in. It is their job to support employees to do better at their job. They also prepare them for future challenges. But the learning profession is still plagued with outdated and unscientific teaching methods.

This leads to ineffective learning experiences for employees and wasted time and money. How can we solve this problem? Luckily, that is the topic of this book. I will take you through some of the best methods available.

These methods are for designing effective learning experiences in the workplace. Whether pedagogic principles or actionable suggestions, it is all backed up by decades of research. It is sure to help you and your team become better learners.

Evidence Based Learning and Myths

Evidence Based Learning and Myths. Embracing an evidence-based approach and avoiding myths are key to designing learning experiences. Before we dive into actionable techniques, let us begin by looking at how to judge sources. After all, this book is likely not the last material on learning experience design you will encounter.

Okay, let us dig in right now. Say you are tasked with creating a new learning design experience for your team. The goal is to prepare them for a new project. This project involves a lot of new information.

You start coming up with ideas. But eventually, you hit a roadblock. You definitely need some inspiration. Googling yields countless ideas.

Most seem like they could provide useful inspiration for you to continue. But some sources are better than others. When picking out studies or articles on learning, you need to adopt a critical approach. This is because not all materials are created equally.

So, what exactly should you do? It is all about adopting an evidence-based approach when evaluating resources. The first part of doing this involves avoiding the many myths that surround learning. As we will see indeed very shortly, there are a number of long-held assumptions about learning that are demonstrably false.

Take the learning styles myth, for example. It has been around for a long time. It is still widely believed to be true, no matter what the science says. The myth is that different people learn in different ways.

Some prefer reading, while others prefer listening to podcasts or watching videos. In the context of learning experience design, this myth often leads educators to providing parallel materials. This leads to spiraling costs for such learning experiences. The learning styles myth is a great example of something that feels intuitively right while being completely wrong.

So, if you are considering using something intuitively right, similar to learning styles, take a moment. It is best to go beyond your intuition and analyze your thinking process. In the case of learning styles, you might realize that what people want is not always good for them. Sure, most of us want to eat sugary or fatty food.

But that does not mean it is good for us. It is the same with learning styles. Multiple studies have shown that it either has no effect or can even have negative effects on learning outcomes. Learning how to identify myths will put you on the right track for adopting an evidence-based approach.

This is for designing learning experiences, but it is only one side of the coin. The other is being able to distinguish great learning materials from average ones. Doing so does not mean spending hours trawling through the sources of academic articles. It is often the case that the language of what you are reading will give you a pretty good idea.

Let us say you discover an article that claims to have discovered an effective new method. This method claims to increase learning retention. The first thing you should do is check if it relies too much on vague or emotional language. Both of these are red flags for potentially shoddy information.

Also, be wary if the author is excessively hyping up this new learning method before explaining it. The best resources rely on the power of their arguments. They do not need any extra hype. If the author's language is sound and there is no obvious hype, you can still do a bit of digging.

For example, you can check the quality of the individual sources the article references. Are the sources published, preferably in peer-reviewed journals? Do the publishers of the journals have any obvious links to particular philosophies or products? These sorts of indicators will give you a solid idea whether the article is legit or not.

If it passes these quick litmus tests, then the article's findings are ready to be implemented. They are ready for the next learning experience you are designing.