The retention of knowledge by the learners has been a challenge in front of the trainers since time immemorial. And, now with the advent of technology and decreasing attention spans of the students, the trainers have to employ new techniques and strategies for improving the knowledge retention of the students. The modern LMSs and authoring tools are used in conjunction to deliver a successful course. The Adobe Captivate Pricing demonstrates the struggle of modern authoring tools to provide e-learning content that is effective with a competitive edge.
Generally, modern-day trainers make use of different strategies and techniques to make their teaching and course a success. The following are the few that are most effective in the context of e-learning-
Introduce stories-
It is practically impossible to remember every little detail about even a very recent event by humans, and for a good reason. If you retain every little nuance of everyday life and events, the human brain would explode. This is the reason that our brain remembers only that which it deems important. But, it is easier to remember the stories or tales comparatively easier. Thus, it stands to reason that the introduction of stories into the course content is bound to make knowledge retention easier.
Introduce Simulations-
The simulations like stories can help with better understanding and fact retention. When the trainees have an outlet to apply their acquired knowledge and skills to simulations, they understand if the learned knowledge translates to real-world situations. This also results in a more immersive learning experience.
Practice makes perfect-
This technique for better knowledge retention has worked wonders for learners. This strategy works on the basis, that, when a lesson is repeated again and again, the learner can easily absorb facts and the real-world application of their knowledge in the situations such as hosting a live event or even just creating a presentation to be shared with the group. The said presentation or the recorded live event can be uploaded on your platform and could be used as a further knowledge bank for future purposes or even for different department struggles. Thus, it can serve a dual benefit.
Introduction & Conclusion-
The frequent studying or observation without doubt results in better knowledge retention. The introduction & Conclusion technique helps achieve this successfully. This means a mention of the pointers that are going to be covered in the chapter at its start and then a small synopsis of the concepts covered at the end of the chapter ensures repeated exposure to concepts. This helps the learners focus better and also helps absorb the desired knowledge.
Micro-learning-
Micro-learning as a teaching strategy involves breaking down the knowledge into smaller and easily consumable parts for learners’ consumption. These divided parts are made available to the learners at the right intervals so that they can retain the knowledge better. The reason for this can once again be cited as a shorter attention span. The human mind when at once, is bombarded with a huge amount of knowledge, can retain only a part of it. But, the introduction of short snippets of the knowledge in the trainees’ minds at regular intervals results in better understanding as well as much better retention.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned techniques can be used by the course creators and authors while authoring an employee training course. The modern authoring tools have made content creation a breeze compared to the traditional approach. Adobe Captivate Pricing is an example of how great software need not be steeply priced. The new courses have surely shown improvement due to the great authoring tools available to work them.