“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” — Daniel J. Boorstin
Hey there, friends! Hope this week's newsletter finds you clicking, swiping, and learning something new. In case you missed it last week, I've added a way for you to submit all those digital gems you discover so we can share them with our whole community. To kick things off, I'm curious: What's the one tech tool you couldn't live without?
Creating eLearning content that is accessible to everyone — including those with visual, hearing, or cognitive impairments — is essential. Join this free webinar to discover how to design accessible courses using iSpring Suite. You'll explore key accessibility standards and get practical tips to make your content truly inclusive. By the end, you'll be equipped to meet industry standards like WCAG and Section 508, ensuring your courses are accessible to all learners.
The Rundown: Traditional lectures can leave students bored and unengaged. To fix this, teachers are using active learning strategies to make classes more interactive and effective.
The Context:
Peer Instruction: Harvard’s Eric Mazur created this method. Students prepare before class, answer questions during lectures, discuss with classmates, and then answer again. This process improves understanding.
Flipped Classroom: Instead of lecturing in class, teachers assign readings or videos as homework. Class time is then used for discussions and problem-solving. This keeps students more involved.
Learning by Doing: Research shows that hands-on activities help students grasp and apply new ideas better than just listening to lectures.
Why it Matters: Active learning helps students think critically, work together, and apply knowledge in real-world situations. Making lectures interactive leads to better engagement and learning outcomes.
What Breakfast Cereal Got Right: Rethinking How We Introduce Learning to Our Audience
The Rundown: Autumn Matus & Jaimie Krause encourage L&D pros to adopt a "front of the cereal box" strategy to better engage learners by highlighting immediate benefits and relevance rather than leading with technical learning objectives.
The Context:
Traditional L&D methods often start with detailed learning objectives that may not resonate with learners.
By drawing parallels to how cereal boxes attract consumers with appealing visuals and messages on the front, L&D can capture attention by emphasizing what's in it for the learner (WIIFM) upfront.
This approach involves connecting training content directly to business impacts and personal benefits, making the learning experience more engaging and relevant.
Why it Matters: In today's fast-paced environment, capturing and maintaining learner attention is crucial. By reframing learning objectives to focus on immediate benefits and practical applications, L&D can enhance motivation, drive behavior change, and align training outcomes with organizational goals. This shift not only makes learning experiences more compelling but also ensures that both business priorities and learner needs are effectively met.
Less Effort, More Completion: The EAS Framework for Simplifying Forms
The Rundown: We've all had bad experiences with forms (and probably create a lot of our own). The Nielsen Norman Group introduces the EAS framework—Eliminate, Automate, Simplify—to reduce user effort and boost form completion rates.
The Context:
Eliminate: Remove nonessential, nonurgent, or irrelevant questions to minimize user effort.
Automate: Leverage existing or inferable data to reduce manual input.
Simplify: Use helpful defaults, alternative input methods, and smart formatting to speed up input.
Why it Matters: By applying the EAS framework, organizations can create more efficient forms, enhancing user experience and increasing completion rates.
How to Engage Multi-Generational Employees in Online Training
Whether you’re designing training for frontline employees, corporate teams, or leadership development, this session will provide actionable insights to maximize training engagement and impact.
Learn strategies to increase employee engagement, ensure training translates into results, and create training programs that drive behavioral change and improve key performance metrics.
Get Your Learning Content in Shape for World Learning Content Cleanup Day!
Outdated, ineffective learning content? It’s time for a refresh. In celebration of World Learning Content Cleanup Day on March 21st, aNewSpring has put together a Learning Content Strategy Guide to help L&D pros streamline, optimize, and future-proof their content. This resource will help you align learning materials with business goals, boost engagement, and ensure your content stays relevant.
Dive into what content strategy is, how to perform a content audit, and how to repurpose or retire your content.
This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
Surprising Truths About Memory
Explore the surprising science of memory with Dr. Charan Ranganath, author of "Why We Remember." He reveals why forgetting isn’t a flaw but a feature of our brains and how simple strategies can dramatically improve recall.
If you or your event needs a speaker or workshop that is highly interactive and super practical, we should talk.
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