We Have Two Kinds of Long Term Memory and Each Is Important for Learning and Performance

Last week we wrote about long term memory and memorization. Usually when people talk about long term memory they fail to distinguish that learners have two types: Explicit (or declarative) memory Implicit (or non-declarative) memory Explicit memory is things you know, that you can express in words. For example: Albany is the capital of New …

In Defense of Memorization

Way down at the bottom of Bloom’s Taxonomy is “knowledge” (Original Taxonomy) or “remembering” (Revised Taxonomy), otherwise pejoratively referred to as "memorization."                                      Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Any instructional designer worth his or her salt knows that we never …

The Promise of Personalized Learning

Personalized learning is the holy grail of education. Imagine if each learner had an educational plan customized exactly to his/her strengths and weaknesses? Back in 1984, Benjamin Bloom (yes, the same one from Bloom’s Taxonomy) published a research paper that showed the benefits of one-on-one tutoring. Bloom demonstrated that one-on-one tutoring can have a huge …

Improving Job Performance with Microlearning

In this blog we write a lot about using microlearning to ensure long-term retention. Combining the spacing effect with the testing effect results in Retrieval Practice, which is the key to long term retention. But there’s a second way to use microlearning that is at least as important. Let’s think about some of the attributes …

Learning Myth 7 ½: The Cost of Microlearning

This wasn’t on my original list of learning myths but it caught my eye when I saw it on a vendor’s web site: Compared to traditional courses, microlearning videos cost 50% less and take 300% less time to produce. First, this raises red flag #1: If the numbers are nice and round they are, at …