Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2020 - 21

In relation to employee learning, the
majority of these expectations are
derived from college and university
courses. Understanding the online
learning environment in higher education
is crucial to successfully creating
content that eliminates stereotypes at
the corporate level.

THE ONLINE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
Traditionally, online college courses
include elements of instructional videos,
corresponding PowerPoint slides in
a PDF format, and standard open
or closed-note exams. Interaction is
measured through group discussion
boards, where posting a reply to a fellow
classmate is required.
Grades for written course components
are typically given for effort, and
monitoring online exams is virtually
impossible. Often, searching for the
answer to a quiz question on Google
produces the entire answer key,
enabling the learner to quickly - and
effectively - achieve a passing grade. Is
this cheating or mere resourcefulness?
Some college students would suggest
the latter.
These past experiences serve as a
precursor to assumptions employees
make about future online learning.

WHERE DOES EXISTING
E-LEARNING MISS
THE MARK?
Given what we know about the
motivation behind power-clicking, it's
safe to say that learners search for what
is meaningful. Without this knowledge,
the corporate e-learning industry
tends to approach the behavior of
power-clicking from a narrowed view,
focusing instead on incorporating
new technology to solve a perceived
attention span deficit.

The following statistics
compelling argument:

create

a

* According to a study by Microsoft, the
average human being now has
an attention span of eight seconds.
* A large scale study by MIT found that
the optimal video length is under six
minutes.
* Advertisers lose 33% of their video
audience within 30 seconds; 45%
within one minute; and 60% within two
minutes.
Adapting online learning to meet specific
time constraints seems like the logical
solution if (mistakenly) maintaining a
learner's attention is the end goal.
Evolving industry trends such as
gamification, microlearning and virtual
reality offer ample opportunity for
user interaction. Though these trends
provide revolutionary and necessary
advancements within the learning
industry, technology often creates
a mindset that attention is linked to
interaction. The thought process follows:
If a user engages with the material, he or
she is paying attention, and if the user is
paying attention, learning objectives are
more readily achieved.

of this course, the learner will be able
to list three ways product x differs from
product y"). Attention falls into this
same category.
Outright, clicking for completion is
a learned behavior. Experienced
e-learners, regardless of age, know they
don't have to pay attention to pass a
course, or even to accomplish a larger
goal such as obtaining a degree.
The inability to quantify attention and,
thus, link it to interaction or engagement,
can be shown by examining the optimal
video length of six minutes and applying
it to several experiences:
* Have you made a work-related call
and spoke to someone longer than six
minutes?
* Have you recently watched a movie
that was over six minutes and not
checked your phone or talked to the
person next to you?
* Have you had dinner with someone
and engaged in conversation longer
than six minutes?
* Have you read a story to your child
or tried a new bedtime routine that
lasted longer than six minutes?

However, there is a distinct flaw in this
equation. While virtual engagement
can be tracked by number of "clicks,"
slide-views or expected duration,
attention is not a measurable outcome
and, therefore, cannot accurately
track learning.

These questions might be tricky to
answer, but if you think about even
one instance where you surpassed
this expected timeframe, it is evident
that attention has nothing to do with
counting minutes or, according to
Microsoft, seconds.

WHY IS ATTENTION NOT A
MEASURABLE OUTCOME?

Moreover, our brains are not hardwired
to countdown this specific timeframe,
sound an alarm, and go, "Well, that's it!
Move on!"

Measurable learning objectives exist
to quantify the amount of information a
learner has obtained from instruction.
Learning goals such as "to know" or "to
understand" are impossible to measure
on their own, but pair them with an action
verb and you can accurately achieve
desired results (i.e., "At the conclusion

While it is important to keep up with new
technology and teaching strategies,
applying this new perspective on a
professional level can ultimately help
us conclude that directly providing
meaning and purpose supersedes the
way in which information is delivered
(i.e., storytelling, gamification, AR/VR).

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https://www.cision.com/us/blogs/2018/01/declining-attention-killing-content-marketing-strategy/ http://up.csail.mit.edu/other-pubs/las2014-pguo-engagement.pdf https://emporiastate.blogspot.com/2018/04/video-length-in-online-courses-what.html?_ga=2.174815521.221731613.1574168956-1028477765.1574168956 https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/cetl/docs/BloomsLevel.pdf https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/cetl/docs/BloomsLevel.pdf https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/cetl/docs/BloomsLevel.pdf https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2020

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