We're in business! As a new learning solutions organization for a new age, our goal is simple - to make learning fun and engaging. Over the course of our lives, we are exposed to learning, much of it - boring, but necessary. As we get older, however, we either told we need to take said learning, think of health and safety training, or we want to take training for some other personal or professional reason. Many of us simply don't want to kill time by learning.
But we are experts at killing time in other ways. Let's review a few supporting stats before talking about ways we can make learning fun and engaging.
According to Statista, internet users and social media users have grown to over 5.1 billion and 4.8 billion people respectively. These numbers represent a growth of 25% from their 2015 figures of 4 billion and 3 billion, respectively.
While film exhibitors struggled due to the pandemic, online streaming (SVOD) did not. SVOD user growth exploded in 2020 and even since, while levelling off due to economic constraints, still over 75% of US households subscribe to at least one service.
Video game growth has...well to put simply, become meteoric. According to PWC, the video game industry was estimated to be worth approximately US$120 Billion in 2017. When the pandemic hit in 2020? Just shy of US$200 Billion. Today, in 2023? Over US$250 Billion. By 2027? Over US$300 Billion.
We get the picture, digital media is growing and at a breakneck pace. But does that really tie into learning? Absolutely, and here's now.
Too long has some learning been so mind numbingly boring that we forget this impacts knowledge retention. People who don't have the constant appetite for learning require fun learning. If they don't have at least a little fun, the odds of knowledge retention drops dramatically. We can see that encapsulated in the theory developed by Dr. Hermann Ebbinghaus.
The Forgetting Curve theory, developed by Ebbinghaus in the late 19th century, illustrates the rate at which information is forgotten over time if not reinforced through rehearsal. Ebbinghaus conducted simple, boring experiments on himself, memorizing nonsensical syllables and tracking his ability to recall them at various intervals. He discovered a consistent pattern: a rapid drop in retention shortly after learning, with the steepest decline occurring in the initial hours and days. The curve then levels off, indicating a slower rate of forgetting.
The theory emphasizes the importance of timely review and repetition in the learning process. Ebbinghaus found that frequent revisiting of material could significantly slow down the forgetting process.
By injecting fun into learning, we can create emotional resonance for the learning experience, reducing the overall need for reinforcement and repetition, therefore leading to more impactful learning overtime. We've seen cursory evidence in a 2016 study published in the Journal of Statistics Education. In this study, the use of fun led to positive outcomes for both educators and learners.
Similarly, a study performed Dr. Garner yielded similar results. he randomly assigned two groups consisting of 117 undergraduate students to review three 40-minute identical lecture videos about statistics. One group’s video were injected with humour – namely jokes. Learners reported:
Increased enjoyment while watching lectures.
Increased satisfaction in how the lecture communicated information.
Increased evaluation scores for the professor who taught the course.
We think that we can all think back to a time where we were bored to death from boring learning. Take a second a reflect back, how hard was it to remember that information? Heck, some of us even probably skipped future classes if the professor reached cosmic levels of boredom.
This simply doesn't have to be the case. Our belief at Onward is simple - engage learners through the fun they know. What do we mean by that? Well check out the website for more info! In the meantime, as we ramp up over the next year, keep your heads up for more blogs around a plethora of different topics.
In the meantime, be sure to check out this fantastic TedTalk from David Groth, retired educator at the Sorenson Magnet School located in Idaho. David has a rich discussion about the important of fun being consistently injected into the curriculum at Sorenson.
As an introductory offer, we're offering a great service for folks who are struggling acquiring and retaining learning design talent. Our retainer service allows you to temporarily hire a learning design to ensure your current project stay on track, but also so you can try out a small learning project focused on fun and engaging content. This retainer service starts for as low as 100 hours and won't be available for too long.
Click the button below to set up a meeting about securing a retainer agreement today!
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