What neuroscience and marketing can teach us about creating a truly engaging learning experience.

1. Your Brain on Learning
Presented at Pearson CITE Conference
04.28.2015
Judy Albers
Learning Strategist
Intrepid Learning

2. Pearson & Intrepid Learning1
Neuroscience is changing learning design
An explosion of brain research proves that…
• Attention is critical.
○ Getting it and keeping it, when the average attention span is 5
seconds.
• Generating insights takes time.
○ Learning is a journey. People need time and opportunities to make
their own meaning.
• Emotions govern.
○ The stronger we feel the right emotions, the more we learn.
• Spaced learning sticks.
○ Longer term recall is best when we learn over several sittings.
Source: “Your Brain on Learning” CLO Magagine, Apr-2015, quoting research from NYU

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But most corporate learning misses the boat
The constraints of classroom and online courses
can inhibit transformational learning.
• Courses don’t live where people are looking
○ A learning experience begins with making people aware it exists, and
making it sound fascinating. The best marketers know how.
• Courses are designed around content
○ To generate insights, the learner has to be in the center of the experience.
○ Answer the questions in their heads. Meet all five moments of need.
• Courses are designed around constraints
○ Courses have start and end times, but learning needs to be continuous.
○ People need ways to practice, reflect, and share. And time to make it real.
○ We can only afford to bring so many people into classrooms, never enough.
• Course experiences fade.
○ Participant guides sit on shelves, eLearning gets lost in LMSs.
○ But an online learning journey, if it’s spaced and marketed, lives on.
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4. 3
66%
Of learning professionals have
trouble getting people to engage
with corporate learning
Source: Bersin by Deloitte survey, 2014
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5. Attention
Getting it. Keeping it.
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People don’t learn without focused attention
Borrow attention-getting practices from Marketing
• Help me hear about it.
○ Marry the learning content map to the marketing editorial calendar.
○ Use great content in social media, adding more value to what’s hot
• Give me content that’s contagious.
○ Marketers have researched what makes content go viral. We apply
the same STEPPS in our shareable, bite-sized content.
• Make every visit worthwhile, even fascinating!
○ We have five seconds to get their attention...after every click.
○ Enable each person to scan and find exactly what they need today.
• Bring me back.
○ Our comprehensive technology stack will include ways to remind,
refresh, and reinforce.
○ It will feel like a game, a journey.
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The art of crafting contagious content
• Wharton marketing
prof Jonah Berger
studied what made
New York Times
articles go viral.
• These six principles
drive all sorts of
things to become
popular.
• Our content will
demonstrate them.
Source: Contagious, by Jonah Berger
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Meeting the Five Moments of Learning Need
For more information, see Meeting the Five Moments of Need
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9. Insights
Generating them takes time.
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10. 9
How to help people generate insights.
People gain insight over time, in community with
other learners.
• We’re social learners.
○ People will have opportunities to learn from each other, ask the
experts, and get feedback.
• Generating insights takes time.
○ We’ll give people real world missions, time to practice, and ways to
reflect on their experiences, making their own meaning.
• We want to contribute our original insights.
○ The community builds the body of knowledge. Moderators reduce
noise by curating the best ideas, and people find it fun, even
addictive.
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11. Emotions
Tapping into the right ones.
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12. 6 Basic Emotions 7 Academic Emotions
Curiosity
Delight
Flow
Engagement
Confusion
Frustration
Boredom
Focus on these once people
are committed to learning.
Source: Annie Murphy Paul
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Surprise
To get people’s attention,
appeal to these.
Source: Paul Ekman
We make decisions with our emotional brain
and justify them with our rational brain.
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How do we tap into these emotions?
• By delivering unique content in creative ways
○ A Pearson specialty, we refuse to create boring content. We’ll
prevent negative academic emotions and generate positive ones.
• By making it personal
○ Because what’s more fascinating than ourselves? Personalized
assessments will show people their strengths and blind spots.
• And comparable
○ Games tap into our competitive spirit, our desire to achieve, and to
see how we stack up
• And rewarding
○ Not just intrinsic rewards, but extrinsic ones, too. Like meaningful
badges on your LinkedIn profile, validated and granted by Pearson.
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14. Spacing
Making learning stick.
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How to space learning so it sticks.
Proven at Harvard, spaced repetition increases
learning by up to 50%
• Ways to prevent forgetting & enhance remembering
○ Spaced intervals
○ Repetition
○ Feedback
• A technology stack that includes “push” and “pull”
○ Pull - The transformational learning experience is always there to
ground learners, support them all their moments of need, and grow
the body of knowledge
○ Push – Marketing platforms and spaced education games can keep
them learning, and keep them coming back.
Sources
“The New Way Doctors Learn”, Time, Mar-2012
“When Remembering Really Matters”, Dr. Sharon Boller, DevLearn 2014
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