We’ve all been there — dull, never-ending training webinars. After 30 minutes, our focus fades, and we find ourselves doodling, checking email, or playing games on our phone just to stay awake. When it finally wraps up, we retain a vague memory of the topics but none of the details or how to put them into practice.
Unfortunately, this reflects many people’s experiences with virtual learning: long, boring, forgettable. It’s tempting to look back on pre-pandemic, in-person training sessions through rose-colored glasses. This nostalgia, paired with the misconception that classroom learning is inherently more effective, is leading some companies to contemplate a return to in-person training.
Yet getting people together at the same time and place isn’t easy when workforces are spread across the globe. It’s also substantially more expensive than virtual options. And although in-person training sessions offer benefits for building bonds among colleagues, they’re pretty lousy at building habits — the entire purpose of organizational learning programs, as we wrote recently in TD Magazine.
But imagine if your virtual learning were designed to be maximally engaging, and people walked away feeling energized and excited to share what they just learned. The NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI) has run almost 4,000 such sessions, and we’ve found that, when done correctly, a virtual learning experience is 50% more effective at getting people to change their behavior than the same in-person learning, at a fraction of the cost. In fact, NLI data shows that after participating in such an experience, 85-95% of participants are still practicing the habits they’ve learned a month later.
Virtual learning through AGES
When we think about virtual learning, one common approach is an asynchronous experience — watching a pre-recorded training video at different times than others. We start out trying to concentrate on the subject matter, but the temptation to multitask is overwhelming, and we often find ourselves doing other things to fight boredom or feel more productive.
The other type of virtual learning is synchronous, meaning we’re going through a learning experience at the same time as others, often with a trained facilitator. This approach uses social learning to reap the benefits of sharing and discussing lessons with others, and it’s the format of NLI’s High-Impact Virtual Experience (HIVE). With more than 1,300 cohorts covering over 26,000 participants since the HIVE was introduced in 2020, the HIVE is currently the most impactful of our learning solutions.
In developing the HIVE, NLI learned there are key elements for getting virtual learning right. These elements maximize hippocampal activation, which is necessary for converting new information into long-term memories. They’re the basis of NLI’s AGES ModelTM:
- Attention – focusing intently on the material.
- Generation – forming our own connections to the material and having insights.
- Emotion – feeling emotions during learning, especially a roller coaster of emotions.
- Spacing – achieving the optimal interval between learning sessions.
The AGES Modelexplains why a well-designed virtual learning experience can be more effective than an in-person session. HIVEs are designed to score moderately to high in each element of AGES, whereas other learning modalities fall short in one area or another.
For example, in-person sessions are great for emotion and generation. Attention starts out strong, but it evaporates by midday. For one all-day session, spacing is non-existent. Conversely, most asynchronous learning experiences score high on spacing but terrible on every other AGES component.
Brain-based design
Here’s how organizations can use the AGES Model to get the biggest bang for their buck when designing virtual learning experiences:
- Limit group size (attention, emotion). Have you ever been in a virtual meeting with 100 other people? Chances are your attention wasn’t high. It’s easy to “hide” in large groups, turn your camera off, and let your more talkative colleagues take over the discussion while you multitask.
That’s why it’s best to have, at most, 20-30 people in a synchronous learning experience. With this number, people feel they’re being watched, and the positive social pressure will keep their attention. Including breakout sessions of even smaller numbers (2-4 people) is particularly effective. Participants will feel compelled to participate, share, and build a community with each other.
- Keep cameras on (attention, emotion). Encourage everyone to keep their cameras on during virtual learning. When cameras are off, multitasking is common. But when everyone in a small group can see your face and what you’re doing, you feel compelled to pay attention and contribute because you want your colleagues to view you favorably.
Having cameras on offers the added benefit of better understanding others’ feelings through their facial expressions and body language, enriching the emotional dynamics of AGES.
- Call on people (attention, emotion, insight generation). Facilitators should inform participants at the outset that they may be randomly called on to answer questions or share their thoughts. The desire to avoid embarrassment in front of peers is a powerful motivator, so knowing you could be asked to contribute at any time encourages focus and preparation.
When facilitators pose questions that connect the material to participants’ work or life, conditions are ripe for those illuminating “aha” moments of insight, the most powerful form of generation for behavior change.
Although being asked to speak publicly can be stressful for some, it’s worth remembering that the most effective learning environments aren’t always comfortable. They tend to be intense, where feelings of mild stress or anxiety alternate with moments of positive emotion. However, facilitators can manage this balance to ensure the experience remains productive and not overwhelming. For instance, they can announce the possibility of being called upon at the start of the session, give the group time to reflect on a question before asking individuals to respond, or invite everyone to share their answers in the chat.
- Select an optimal day and time for learning (attention). Choosing a time when attention is at its peak is crucial. Avoid Fridays, as people tend to be focused on the upcoming weekend, and steer clear of Mondays, which are often spent catching up on tasks. Typically, attention is highest in the morning, when our minds are freshest and less cluttered by events of the day.
- Focus on one habit at a time, over time (attention, spacing). Because of attention and spacing benefits, six 1-hour sessions are better for learning than one 6-hour session. In a HIVE, we introduce three new habits and conduct an hour-long session on each, spread at least a week apart. Research shows that if you’re able to sleep on material, memories consolidate more effectively. You’ll also have time to think about the material during your waking hours and generate new connections and insights.
Effective virtual learning requires intentional design. Simply asking people to watch a recorded webinar isn’t enough to ensure they’ll retain information — let alone apply it — weeks, months, or even years later. However, by incorporating the principles of AGES, learners are more likely to remember the material and feel inspired to start putting their new habits into action. A version of this article appeared in TD Magazine. Read the full article here.
