The Effect of Classroom Session Duration on Learning Retention

Someone asked about class session duration and retention rates. Since I am facilitating a session on “Re-Charging Classroom Training at the Learning 2009 conference next week, I thought I address this issue here.

I haven’t found many studies that deal directly with duration. Moreover, retention is more complicated than that. Consider the following:

1. A proxy for the duration question is the concept of attention span. There are some studies on this. Ruff and Lawson found that attention span varies roughly with age of the learner. This was for very young subjects, so extrapolation to adult learning has some risk. Subsequent rules of thumb derived from this finding say that attention span is 1-4 minutes per year. So a 30 year old adult learner might be able to focus attention from 30 minutes to two hours before some kind of break is required. It’s reasonable to assume that successive work-break cycles have diminishing returns.

2. There’s been a lot of good research by Clark, Nguyen, and Sweller on learning efficiency in the context of e-learning, but much of it can be applied to the classroom. Issues like cognitive load, segmenting, pacing, and practice are all relevant to classroom training. They may easily override concerns of duration of the session.

So assuming good presentation, pacing, and segmenting techniques are employed, and refreshing breaks are given, you may expect adequate efficent learning from 4,6, and 8 hour sessions for adult learners. This is supported to some extent by Schultz and Sharp’s study finding no difference between 50 minute and 75 minute classroom sessions.

However, if the content somehow requires concerted attention for an uniterrupted span, I would predict that learning efficiency would start to diminish after 30 minutes and drop off dramatically after two hours.

I think you’ll find most successful presenters and facilitators would agree with this. I plan to bring this question up at our session at Learning2009. Check this blog for the results

References:

Development of sustained, focused attention in young children during free play. Ruff, Holly A.; Lawson, Katharine R. Developmental Psychology. Vol 26(1), Jan 1990, 85-93.

Efficiency in Learning by Clark, Nguyen, and Sweller. 2006. Pfeiffer. San Francisco, CA.

The Effect of Class Duration on Academic Performance and Attendance in an Introductory Computer Class. Leah A. Schultz and Jason H. Sharp. Proceedings of ISECON, 2007, v24.

Learning Technology Infrastructure Considerations

 

I have worked with a number of organizations in the past who have faced the challenge of building a new learning technology infrastructure. Depending on the needs, the available technology, and the resources at hand, the ideal solution has been different for each. 

Given the power of today’s LMSs, LCMSs, virtual meeting tools, talent managment systems, social media networks, and other related learning technology tools you would think you could settle on a core set of products that solve most organizations needs. Well, here are some reasons why it’s more complicated than that:

As I mentioned  training needs, resources at hand (including implementation team and budget available), and the technology available are key factors in determining a plan.

 Another dimension to consider is implementation time versus business goals.  For example, if there is a short term objective to train all staff on a new business process in the next ninety days, embarking on an eighteen month learning management system implementation project would be woefully inadequate.

 So in the end the most productive approach involves the following:

 Gain an understanding of the business goals to ensure alignment

• Assess the training needs in light of the business goals
• Survey the geographic distribution of the target training audiences
• Assess the candidate learning technologies’ reach vis-à-vis the audiences’ locations
• Obtain reasonable estimates of the implementation time for the infrastructure pieces
• Compare with business goals
• Create an implementation roadmap that maximizes audience training while minimizing implementation time

 Some might question why a training needs analysis is necessary.  Content and audience needs drive the infrastructure design. For example, high end leadership skills training is usually delivered via live instructor-led physical classroom training.  Moving this content to 100% self-paced web-based training is likely to fail to meet the course objectives. Yet, there may be some topics covered within the leadership course that might be well suited to web-based training.

Therefore, it is conceivable that a blended approach would be most effective training-wise as well as cost-wise.

 In addition, because large organizations have many target audiences, this is usually a multivariate problem. Each audience provides a vector of need for the ultimate design.

So on the surface it might not seem that a training needs analysis of audience and content is directly related to learning infrastructure design, but it actually is a pre-requisite to a successful and robust design.

 Also training needs change over time as the organization changes. For example, one large services company’s current learning infrastructure has excellent North American coverage affording real-time full motion video with interactive learning stations for each learner at every branch in North America. However, the company’s recent international growth poses new challenges. The cost effectiveness of providing this type of interactive satellite-oriented video dramatically drops off as coverage for additional continents is considered. Alternative delivery methods are now being assessed.

 So it is wise to try to anticipate upcoming changes to the curriculum (which are often influenced by changes in business challenges) so that the proper amount of flexibility of the learning infrastructure is built in. Robust learning infrastructures for large organizations take time to build and exact a cost to change quickly.  You should be comfortable with its scope and capability for a horizon of approximately three years or more so that implementation costs don’t consume too large a percentage of your efforts.

So business challenges and time frames, training needs, and technology capabilities and constraints all affect the design of the learning infrastructure.  Taking these factors into consideration will help you build a successful platform that responds to today’s business needs.

How to Choose an LMS

Several colleagues have recently asked me about choosing an LMS. Here are some things to consider:

Externally hosted or internally hosted service?

This is a big divide.  Some products are great as a service (e.g. SAAS or ASP), but are a major bear to implement and run internally.  Small organizations should seriously consider a service.  It’s much quicker to implement, upgrades happen automatically, very few finger pointing issues when things go wrong.  Large orgainzations (25,000+ employees) should look at hosting internally. The economies of scale may favor you taking on these additional headaches for the costs savings your IT infrastructure and organization can bring to the party.

Let’s focus on hosted services for the rest of this post.

Costs. There are two major cost categories for hosted solutions: Installation and on-going service.

Installation: Getting employee feeds connected to the service is the big step to get up and running so be sure to ask about that. The next big challenge is reporting, so look at their standard reports. Using standard reports will save you a lot over getting custom reports built.

On-going: Most charge by the active user in some fashion, but it’s important to understand exactly how they are charging. You’ll need to retain records of inactive employees for a long time, but shouldn’t pay the same rate for them.

Capabilities:  All popular LMSs have a core set of functional capabilities such as tracking learners training history, custom learning plans, assigning required  training. Bersin and Brandon Hall have exhaustive, blow by blow, run downs of all popular LMSs.  It’s worth a look at these as far as categories to compare, but in the end most address the core capabilities quite well.

But there are other major functional capabilties to consider.

Domains. There is a big difference in systems complexity in LMSs that can handle multiple corporate divisions or subsidiaries (aka “domains”) with their own course catalogs, landing pages, and reports versus those that just handle one domain at a time.  Determine whether you need multiple domains within the next three years. You won’t want to change LMSs any sooner, so don’t start out with a single domain installation if you need a mutiple domain within that timeframe.

Certifications. Certification processing and tracking seems to be a specialty for some LMSs. Rules for tracking those can be complex and may lead to a lot of customization. Take a look at their user report generation tools and be sure you feel comfortable with them. Being able to use them will save you a lot of custom report charges over the long haul.

For small organizations multiple domains won’t usually be an issue. The functional capabilties are almost always a consideration. 

Usability. There is no substitute for actually testing out each system. Generate the common use cases you expect to be doing such as add courses to your catalog, adding students to a class, entering assessments, uploading a web course (do you courseware tools actually work with the LMS?), getting a learner’s transscript, and running a compliance progress report on your learners.  Then try them out on the vendor’s demo systems. See for yourself which system works best for your workflow.

Start with this approach aqnd you’ll be a better educated buyer.

Giving Feedback in a Work Environment

One of the toughest tasks a manager has is giving constructive feedback.

One of the leading organizations that has tackled this issue is the The Center for Creative Leadership. It has a number of excellent resources on performance feedback. Their feedback process is called SBI for Situation, Behavior, Impact. It can be used to give positive or negative feedback without escalating the emotional content.

SITUATION: Cite it with specifics: when and where did the behaviour occur, who was there, give the context.

BEHAVIOR: What the person said, did, and/or gestured.

IMPACT: State objectively how their behavior made you feel or affected the group.

The SBI process is explained in a nutshell in their $12 booklet, “Feedback That Works“.

Of course, they have a five day course on the subject as well.

CCL is a non-profit center dedicated to building leadership excellence.

I am not affiliated with them, but I did take the five day course…. It’s awesome.

Online Learning and Sales Training

Blogger RK Prasad recently did a survey of Linked-In respondants asking “Which is better for Sales Training? Classroom or Online?”.  He  got more than 100 responses and published the summarized results:

Blended – 65%

Classroom – 25%

Online – 10%

Folks left interesting comments for and against online sales training.

One respondent cited a federally funded literature review that found all but one study of the literature found significant advantages of online versus face to face training.

Though this discussion raises some passions on both sides of the argument, my take is a more practical approach. Use both when you can afford it.  If it’s not practical to bring everyone to a single point on earth, use web-based technology to span the distance.

Online technologies can split the differences between the face to face classroom experience and the traditional web-based training experience.

For example, a synchronous online classroom (Webex, Centra Saba, etc.) can provide video of the learner to the class which allows participants and instructor to see non-verbal gestures, hear sales pitch delivery, and fashion sales simulation scenarios just as realistic as a face-to-face environment.

Another technology that splits the difference is Asert’s Dialog Coach which allows interactive practice of sales pitches. It does a great job of simulating the stresses of presenting to a prospect, allowing the learner to polish a sales pitch that covers important points and counterpoints.

 

- Rick

Project Management Certification Training

If your folks are interested in obtaining their Project Management Professional (PMP) certification awarded by the Project Management Institute (PMI) then there are two stellar programs that I have first hand experience with:

1. Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Combo: PM Tricks of the Trade® + 2-Day PMP® Exam Prep 5 day instructor-led course .   http://www.rmcproject.com/
2. PMLG’s PMP Exam Preparation Boot Camp™ 5 day instructor-led course. http://www.pmlg.com/

Both courses have very high pass rates. In addition there is about 160 hours of additional self-paced study required before you can reasonably be ready to sit for the exam. There is also an experience requirement for the PMP certification that amounts to about 2-3 years of full time relevant PM experience. More info at www.pmi.org

Though I admit I’m biased, the PMP is the gold standard of project management certifications, in my opinion. Of course, having a PMP doesn’t necessarily guarantee project success! They also have more advanced certifications for program management, risk management, and others.

At the other end of the spectrum there is a very good one day “sheep dip”  course designed to give managers an intro to the basic concepts of PM by Paradigm Learning called Countdown®: A Strategy Game for Project Teams.  We have used it with good success here. http://www.paradigmlearning.com/

None of the courses above cover any specific PM tool. For MS Project specific training check out the LearnShare Mindleader series. (Their PMP prep courses are out of date, however.)  Good references for MS Project are the Microsoft Project Step by Step series for beginners and Eric Uyttewaal’s Dynamic Scheduling for advanced topics. The Step by Step books are good enough to serve as a self-paced course, especially if you team it with something like the Countdown or the LearnShare Corpedia PM series as a kick-off plus an in-house tutor/mentor program.

Learning Technology – Podcasting

Build Your Own Podcasting Studio

You can just add a mike to a PC and use Microsoft Sound recorder. But if you want to get started doing quality podcasts check out these recommendations:

1. The single best item to start off with is the podcast starter kit from BSW. It has the Audio Technica AT-2020 mike, an Alesis USB mixer (expandable to 8 inputs), some starter software, a mike desk stand, and the book Podcast Solutions by Dan Klass.

You can check out some pages of the book at Amazon.

Take a look at BSW’s other podcasting kits. They are nice upgrades, but not necessary.  I still drool over the Marantz digital recorder. I met an ex-BBC producer turned podcaster who carries something similar around with him for man-in-the-street interviews. It’s awesome.

2. We purchased boom mike stands, music stands (for scripts), and pop screen filters from the Guitar Center… inexpensive and work well. Hint: Boom stands and pop screens prevent unwanted noise. Hint: Get a second or even third AT2020 mike from BSW. You will almost always want to record at least two folks.

3. Of course you need a PC, but it doesn’t have to be a barn burner. A recent vintage 1 Gigiaherz  CPU or faster with 1 gig of RAM running Windows XP will do nicely. Tip: Get 2 gigs of RAM for longer recordings. See below.

4. Software-wise: Download Audacity from sourceforge.net.  It is free and works well for simple productions. Its recording and editing length is limited by memory, so here’s where you might want to have 2 gigs of RAM instead of 1 gig. It’s a great backup “studio” if you need something to do a quick recording with, too. Just add an $8 PC mike from Radio Shack and you can do an audio interview anywhere. Tip: Scan software for viruses before using. Should be clean from Sourceforge, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.

5. For professional style recordings, we like SONY ACID PRO 7. Whoever becomes your audio engineer will love its power and capability. It even has filters to clean up dirty recordings, sound effects, and a music production capability. You can download an older demo copy at download.com Tip: (It’s supposedly checked for viruses, but I would scan it anyway.)

Tip: I brought in my synthesizer (CASIO or YAMAHA 76 key) to create little musical ditties and sound effects. However, SONY Acid Pro now replaces most of those functions.

6. If you don’t have a professional music library, I recommend Killer Tracks – used by corporate and commercial broadcast stations everywhere. Their website allows licensing by the “drop”. Hint: If you are doing any kind of quantity, though, license the whole library.

These six items will get you up and running with professional results. You can do it all for less than $1,000 plus the cost of a PC.

- Rick Darby