“Improve the learning impact of your training through spaced learning.”

Roy de VriesApril 12, 2021Learning makeover

Making knowledge retention work

It has probably happened to you before. You’re just getting started as an emergency responder and suddenly a difficult question comes up: “Do you remember step two when someone has to evacuate the building?”. Or you are in the middle of a guitar lesson and think: “What was that chord again?”.

Answers that you knew, but which after some time faded away and seem to have disappeared from your long-term memory. Even though you have spent so much time memorising those facts, processes and other useful information. The learners of your courses will probably experience the same.

How is this possible? And what can you do about it? In this blog I will take you into the wonderful world of the forgetting curve. I also give tips on how to successfully use the specific learning tools (e.g. the MemoTrainer) in your training, so your learners will learn smarter and perform better.

Forgetting curve

The situation above is a typical example of the forgetting curve. German researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus published a groundbreaking research in 1885 (yes, you read that right) with his theory “Über das gedächtnis”, about the memory. The research has been replicated more recently with similar results.

Ebbinghaus developed a set of 2300 three-letter syllables, tried to learn them by heart and repeated them. Within hours of learning these syllables, he had already forgotten a large portion of them.

Over a period of several days, he had forgotten every syllable from his memory:

Based on Murre & Dros (2015) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120644

It seems so simple, but everyone will recognise it. From primary school to secondary school, from higher education to professional education; with insufficient repetition, over time you will not fully remember information.

Criticisms of Ebbinghaus

The forgetting curve you see above is not entirely free of criticism. In his scientific research, Dr. Hermann used himself as a test subject. Something that actually would not be accepted in this day and age.

But one of the main elements of criticism is the fact that Ebbinghaus chose meaningless syllables to carry out the research. He tried to disconnect it from real life and prior knowledge, but this had implications for the outcome of his research:

Little influence of prior knowledge
Little knowledge that could be taken away from ‘real life’ interactions
Minimal coherence of remembered knowledge; which encourages forgetting knowledge
No differentiation between difficult and easy syllables

Strong criticism, but ultimately we can learn from this if we try to influence the forgetting curve of our learners. How? We will come back to that later. First, let’s have a look at another concept of Ebbinghaus; spaced learning.

Spaced learning

The ultimate goal is to store all the knowledge you have acquired over time in your long-term memory. That way, you can immediately recall it when the information is needed. By training on how to retrieve that information, you strengthen the connection between the neurons in your brain. One way of doing this is by making practice questions of the material from the past weeks. This is also called spaced learning.

Many learners tend to study all the material shortly before a test and then hope for the best. However, this makes little sense; your memory can only cope with a limited amount of information over a certain period, after which your short-term memory is ‘full’ and you can no longer absorb any information.

It’s like a computer; if you open all the programmes on your computer at once, your RAM will fill up. The solution? Rebooting or closing some programs. The same goes for your memory; at a certain point it’s full and putting something in means something falls out. You need to continue another time.

Now what?

Maybe you are already familiar with the forgetting curve and spaced learning. But how do you as a teacher, trainer or educational developer ensure that, despite knowing this, you don’t fall into the same trap? One way is to successfully implement learning technology that has been developed specifically for this purpose.

Let’s take the example of the knowledge retention tool in aNewSpring: the MemoTrainer. This functionality helps you and your learners, over a certain period of time, to better remember the material: knowledge retention.

Theoretically this is what it looks like:

Fun fact: aNewSpring started out as ‘MemoTrainer‘, after which we built a learning platform around it. A functionality that has already earned its stripes!

A large number of aNewSpring users use this functionality for their training and courses. There is lots of positive feedback on the learning effect of this functionality.

At least once a week, learners receive a notification from the platform that a MemoTraining is ready for them. This consists of a selection of questions, prepared by the developers of the training. The MemoTrainer decides which questions will be shown to the learners, based on an algorithm. Let’s take a closer look at how you can organise this in practice.

Relevance!

First, let’s tackle the criticism of Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve by making content applicable and relevant.

Use these three tips:

1. Make sure you develop repetitive moments that connect to a participant’s prior knowledge.
2. Develop content that touches on a participant’s prior knowledge.
3. Make sure the content is coherent with each other.

If you use a tool in combination with a training course, make sure that the questions are related to the information the learner has already learned. This is very important if the knowledge to be remembered is difficult and new. Give the learner ‘a hook’ on which to hang the concepts that are repeated.

Timing of your retention training

The moment at which you present certain questions to your learner is crucial for the success of your retention training. Depending on the structure of your training, you can choose to use the retention tool before, during or after your training. A combination of those three is of course also possible! Think carefully about the goal and whether the learners already have enough knowledge to enter the retention tool; otherwise it becomes a frustrating process for them.

Example

As an example, let’s look at the MemoTrainer in aNewSpring. When you activate it in your training, you have three choices:

1. You can make questions ‘MemoTrainable‘ immediately.

2. You can make questions ‘MemoTrainable‘ after they have finished an activity with these questions.

3. You can set extra ‘MemoTrainable‘ questions after the learners have completed an activity.

Which option you choose depends on which questions you want to repeat. In some cases, for example in training comprehension, it can be stronger to have the tool repeat other questions than in the training itself (3). This way, participants can practice with questions that are similar to them.

Do you want to train specific knowledge and have it return in the repetition process? Then use the same questions in the tool (2).

When you want to retrieve prior knowledge, you can also make questions that match MemoTrainable immediately. Learners then immediately start with a retention exercise the moment they start the training (1).

Incorporating into a learning programme

An important condition when implementing a (knowledge) retention tool in your training is embedding it in the learning process. Some trainers see it as a nice functionality ‘on the side’, but then it loses its value.

The moment you, as a developer, emphasise the importance of (weekly) knowledge training and also reserve time for it in the training schedule, the added value for a learner becomes greater. This is also a great way to differentiate your courses from your competitors.

Developing good, trainable questions takes time. Of course, you also want the learners to take this seriously and to benefit from your carefully developed questions!

Repetition: how much is enough?

Retention is nice and all, but how many times does a question need to be repeated before you, the developer, feel that retention has been sufficient? That depends on the complexity of the training and the diversity of questions.

An example: if you develop an emergency response training course (have a look at our customer cases) in which you mainly train on processes and steps, your questions will consist of many components. Think, for example, of the correct steps for the recovery position. In such a case, it is good if you repeat the questions more often, so that you can be sure the participant knows the steps by heart.

When developing a conceptual training course, it may be possible to do with less repetition. Consider the concept of “adjective”. Once you demonstrate that you have mastered this concept, for example by answering a question correctly three times, this may be sufficient.

Example

Let’s have a look at the MemoTrainer in aNewSpring again. When you start working with the MemoTrainer settings, you need to choose a training level. With this level you determine how often a participant has to repeat a question before 100% retention is reached.

Have you set the training level to “No repetition”? Then all questions have to be answered correctly once for 100% retention. Set the training level to “Excellent”? Then all questions must be answered correctly six (!) times in a row for 100% retention.

Our advice? In any case, make sure you think carefully about the level. For the majority of aNewSpring clients, repeating it three or four times is the sweet spot, so participants can keep it manageable and see their retention bar rise with each MemoTraining.

Training with learning goals

On a deeper level than training at the ‘question level’ is retention training at the ‘learning goal level’. Thinking back to our example in the previous paragraph, training concepts in our spelling, such as the adjective, does not need to be done at question level. That would mean that you practice each question x-number of times. If you train by learning goals, then you link questions about the adjective to the learning goal of the same name. In this way, you can demonstrate at a higher level that the concept is well embedded in your long-term memory.

Looking at the aNewSpring MemoTrainer: if you set it to work with learning goals, it is recommended to set the training level a bit higher. You link questions to learning goals, but instead of scoring per question, you score per learning goal. If you have 40 questions divided over 5 objectives, a learner will get 5 questions per MemoTraining. If you set the training level low, a learner can finish the MemoTraining quite quickly.

The big advantage of training on learning goals is that it is clear to the learner on which learning goal the retention lags behind. Especially with an upcoming exam or other test, this can provide very valuable information.

How to proceed?

Did this inspire you and do you think a retention tool will make your training even more effective?

Great! Here are some general tips before you get started:

1. Make an analysis of your target group: is there a need for a retention tool? Does it suit their learning style to log in at least once a week and do a retention training?

Check out the customer cases that use the MemoTrainer

Fire-Learning: the fire and theory under control

To train firefighters, they first need to learn the theory, and only after that can they put their knowledge into practice. But what do you do when they turn up at the field day, totally unprepared?

112BHV: het creëren van een adaptieve e-learning voor BHV’er

In-house emergency response officers have to go through the same training, regularly. Why couldn’t they just refresh their knowledge of the parts they’ve forgotten?

NIBE-SVV: how they took the step towards online learning

While NIBE-SVV’s classroom courses were solid, they lacked substantial online components. How do you transform a training portfolio from completely offline, to mostly online training?

Konnect: intuitive e-learning about the daycare centre app

Childcare workers have a full agenda, so how do you get them get acquainted with a new daycare app? By using the power of storytelling throughout the course.

2. Question development: have you reserved enough capacity to develop strong questions? It differs per retention tool which type of questions you can use. It is advisable to develop various questions, so that participants are stimulated to reproduce the knowledge in different ways.

3. Take a good look at your didactic concept and integrate the retention tool as a real learning activity into your concept!

Getting started with the MemoTrainer
Are you already using aNewSpring, but you have not yet activated the MemoTrainer in your learning journey? Now is the time to do so! Choose a suitable course, start developing questions and offer the functionality to your learners. You will see the learning effect and the retention of your courses skyrocket.

Do you have any questions after reading this blog?
Feel free to send a message to support@anewspring.nl and we will help you on your way.

About the author

Roy de Vries

Enthusiastic educational scientist with a passion for innovation. Loves to help and learn.

On the wish-list to learn: how-to write good thrillers.

How can training providers capitalise on ‘skills obsession’ opportunities?

Start exploring the obsession for re- and upskilling and the global skills gap today

Employers and professionals have an obsession with skills. As a training provider, you can benefit from this. In this guide you will learn how with different perspectives, hard figures and visions of ‘Learning Rockstars’.

Get the guide

“ If there is one group of organisations or types of companies that should be on top of this obsession around skills, it’s training providers. ”
– Ger Driesen

anewspring-perspectives-guide-skills-obsession-front-preview-cropped

Check out more content like this

Back to blog overview »

Receive our fresh insights and inspiration
within the world of learning in your mailbox

Forms and chat

We use Hubspot to safely collect, save and use your personal data and contact preferences; an example of this is our online chat or forms that you complete in our site.

View details

Well, you wanted to sign up or get in touch, but it doesn’t seem to work (yet). Maybe a bit annoying, but we want to do this the right way; by getting your permission. Click here to see which cookie-setting you need to accept to fix this.

About us

The learning platform

Learning methods

You know the drill…

We all love to hate or hate to love cookies, the yummy, edible ones and the internetty, online ones. We also use them (the latter) to make our website prettier, faster and better tailored to you. Click ‘Accept all’ if you’re alright with that or make a well informed choice by checking out and adjusting all the specifics under ‘Cookie options’. Mmm, cookie options...

You can find more information on this in our Privacy Statement. | Close

Cookie options

Take a moment...

Your privacy is very important to A New Spring BV. Find below the mandatory and optional approvals you can give us to allow us to process your personal data.

You can find more information on this in our Privacy Statement.

If you wish to withdraw these approvals, please click on ‘forget my approvals’ at the bottom of this page.

Forms and chat

We use Hubspot to safely collect, save and use your personal data and contact preferences; an example of this is our online chat or forms that you complete in our site.

View details

Watch YouTube

Videos on this website are provided from the YouTube or Vimeo streaming video service. YouTube may show you personalised adverts preceding the actual video you want to watch. This consent is optional, but required if you wish to view videos directly on this website.You may wonder, why can I watch vimeo without this consent? Vimeo has an anonymous function which allows us to display the videos without cookies.

View details

Personalised advertising

You probably use Facebook or LinkedIn and also, you probably use Google from time to time to search for stuff. Then, you’ll know that they have advertisements on there. To make those less annoying (i.e. more personalised), we use a number of services on our website.

View details

Website statistics

Feedback is valuable. When it comes to how well our website works for you, feedback is formed by numbers and statistics. That’s why we use Google Analytics and Hotjar to learn how visitors move, click and act on our website. To make it less scary, we anonymise this data before we save it by masking the last few numbers of your IP-address. And we do not allow Google or other parties to use this information for any other purposes.

View details

Functional technologies

You want a pretty and quick website, right? Our (WordPress) website uses a cookie during your visit to our website to check if your browser supports cookies. We kind of need those cookies, because it makes your visit much nicer by remembering personal preferences, quicker performance and loading the correct fonts from Google to properly represent our branding (which we hope you think is pretty, too).

View details

Forget my settings Removed!

“Improve the learning impact of your training through spaced learning.”

Making knowledge retention work

Forgetting curve

Criticisms of Ebbinghaus

Spaced learning

Now what?

Relevance!

Timing of your retention training

Incorporating into a learning programme

Repetition: how much is enough?

Training with learning goals

How to proceed?

Roy de Vries

How can training providers capitalise on ‘skills obsession’ opportunities?

Check out more content like this

Scientific insights on learning by Will Thalheimer

Infographic How to keep your e-learning understandable

Live Online Learning: Everything you need to know

About us

The learning platform

Learning methods