Design Tip: Lock in Complex Topics with This Technique!

What can eLearning designers pick up from medical school?(Besides, you know, how to be a doctor.)

It turns out there’s an effective med-school instructionalmethod that you can easily adapted to soft-skills eLearning. And it’s proven tohelp learners retain important, complex information!

Hard skills vs. soft skills

Hard-skills learning, or algorithmic learning, is typicallyacquired through practice and application. Hard skills are abilities like usingformulas in Excel or designing a web page with HTML. They’re learned bystep-by-step instruction and retained by repeating them on the job.

Soft-skills, or heuristics, are more complex. Think fieldslike sales, leadership, and management where there isn’t a clear right way todo things. Heuristics involve rules of thumb, insights, and judgment calls. Forexample, there is no right way for a salesperson to close a sale. It depends onthe buyer, the product, the selling relationship, and several other factors.But there are techniques and rules of thumb that can help salespeople determinethe most successful approach and apply it.

Make soft skills stick

The aforementioned medical school study looked at heuristiclearning to identify the instructional techniques that best foster long-termretention. The most important thing revealed from the research is this: soft-skillslearning needs to be structured. A highly organized process helps learnersretrieve the heuristics—the rules of thumb they’ve learned—in the moment ofneed.

The researchers also identified a medical school technique—theOne-minute Preceptor—that is particularly effective for soft-skillsinstruction. The main purpose is to provide structured, meaningful, and timelyfeedback and reinforcement. Here’s how it can work in eLearning.

First, present a scenario or problem for the learner toreview and consider. Construct a narrative story in the form of a brief videoor module to engage your viewers. Then build in the following five steps.

1. Commitment.Require learners to state their belief: What is the best way to handle theproblem the module presents? Ask your learners to commit by answering amultiple-choice question, writing their answer in a text field, or by uploadinga video of them explaining their approach. (At this point, you’re not going tojudge whether the belief is right or wrong; that’s something learners willdiscover for themselves through this process.) Example from med school: I believe the patient needs a course ofantibiotics.

2. Probe. Askfollow-up questions that cause learners to elaborate and provide evidence fortheir decision. Why did they choose this approach? What alternatives did theyconsider? Why did they dismiss these alternatives? Example questions: What led you to this decision? Is there aneffective alternative treatment or is this the sole treatment available?

3. Reinforce.Learners need to receive reinforcement and feedback on their responses. Thesecomments should be timely and specific to each individual user. Feedback can beposted privately through your LMS or sent individually via email. The feedbackshould highlight the positive aspects of the learner’s responses. Example: Your diagnosis is accurate andyour decision-making process was sound.

4. Guidance.Here’s where feedback can address any errors or important pieces of informationthat the learner omitted. The trainer’s comments shouldn’t just point outmistakes but offer ways of correcting them in the future. The more the feedbackis individualized and action-oriented, the more value it will have. Example: There was one alternativetreatment that you neglected to consider. Please review your notes from ourlast session to identify the treatment and why it’s effective.

5. Principle.Boil down the learning experience into a rule of thumb that the learner cantake away—the core insight to deploy on the job. A memorable, clearlyarticulated principle will help learners recall and apply the knowledge in themoment of need. Feel free to also include any final thoughts that might providefurther clarity or help the information stick. Example: Always consider alternatives first before prescribingantibiotics. Overprescribing antibiotics can be problematic for you and yourpatients.

When to use the One-minute Preceptor

Soft-skills training helps learners navigate situationswhere they must rely on their own judgment and rules of thumb to succeed. Forexample: A salesperson needs to handle a prospect’s price objections, or amanager has to conduct a difficult conversation with an underperformingemployee.

Using the One-minute Preceptor’s structure has been provento make heuristic learning stick. And the technique delivers quality feedbackthat will enrich learners’ understanding and help them apply their trainingwhen the chips are down.

Source

Yelon, S. L., et al. “Transfer Over Time: StoriesAbout Transfer Years After Training.” PerformanceImprovement Quarterly, 25(4). 2013.