Understanding how people learn is a shortcut to a successful training program. Everyone learns differently and each individual style needs catering for. Once identified, effective and easily consumed content can be prepared and delivered with ease.
Let’s take a look at the first steps and then later in the article we’ll provide you with solutions to different learning style needs:
Every person has a preferred way of learning and retaining knowledge. No one style fits everyone, and the delivery of knowledge should cater to different needs. This way, you get learning programs that are fully optimised and effective.
Let’s have a look at the three different learning styles below:
If you are an auditory learner (aural learners), your preferred learning style is when listening. You will remember what you have heard and easily understand spoken instructions. Reading aloud also aids knowledge retention as you listen to what you digest.
Auditory learners will generally speak to themselves when bored. Other people might think this is because you are not focused but in reality you're taking important information in. Audiobooks and podcasts are a significant lean towards this style, being information-dense and easily consumable.
There are a few tips and tricks that you can use as an auditory learner to optimise your content consumption. This includes speaking out loud about what you are reading, having test questions spoken to you and generally saying all knowledge that you can consume vocally.
Visual learning makes up 65% of the global population. Employees and students learn by consuming knowledge through visual cues like written word, pictures or video. Ultimately remembering learning through sight.
You tend to be a very tidy person. Likewise, often recall and remember learning by closing your eyes and visualising. To combat boredom, your first go-to will be watching a movie or video.
The downside is that you struggle to remember teachings conveyed through speaking or audio. Unless in the form of a story that can conjure vivid visualisations. Mostly attractive to colour but easily distracted by sound.
Learning content that works best for visual learners is in interactive video form, gamification, picture dense workbooks and image-rich seminars. Flashcards, colour coding and visualisation can be a great way to retain knowledge easily.
Tactile learners (Kinesthetic learning) make up for 5% of the world, you prefer to learn by getting hands-on, touching and doing. Also referred to as multi-sensory learning because you use both visual and auditory learning styles.
You prefer to build, make or touch what you learn and retain knowledge by physically reenacting movements. Most Tactile learners use hand motions when speaking, are easily distracted and take breaks often.
One of the best ways for you to get to grips with something is by dismantling it and piecing it back together. This way helps you understand how different component works. Generally speaking, you will have good coordination but struggle to recollect what you have been shown if you weren’t personally being hands-on.
This learning style can lean more towards subjects like designing, building and engineering, where you can feel what you are creating. Whilst in-class learning can adapt to this style, so can online. Learning organisations cater for tactile learners by making content more interactive and accessible on touch devices and creating courses where you can digitally piece items together.
As a 21st century learner, you will have less time than your predecessors. Due to the fast-paced and busy lifestyles, the way you consume knowledge is ever-changing. A constant need for easily accessible and information-dense learning is essential to engaging the new generation.
Whilst there is more learning material available than ever, this can also have downsides. To truly deliver or consume learning effectively you have to understand precisely how the modern learner operates. Let’s dive into a few different characteristics and how you can cater to their needs.
Even though working hours have gradually decreased over the last 150 years, the amount of work we are doing in those hours is rapidly increasing. Primarily due to advancements in technology making our jobs more automated and efficient.
Whilst out of work, people typically have busy social lives and family lives that they have to workaround. The modern learner can quickly feel overwhelmed by all of the above and struggle to fit in the time to learn.
Providing learning in an easily digestible format can cater towards this. Bitesize learning, where each lesson only takes 5 minutes to complete saves time and helps knowledge retention. Easy accessibility to learning anywhere through mobile or tablets means that you can learn in your own time when you feel most comfortable.
It's no hidden secret that our attention spans have drastically dropped over the last 15 years. Mainly due to how we interact with social media and the digital sphere.
The modern learner will be used to multi-tasking and, being interrupted as frequently as every 5 minutes at work. With lots of different distractions battling for attention can be an uphill battle.
This is where captivated online learning steps in. Through technology advancements learning content has become increasingly more engaging. Learning providers tend to condense information and make content as interactive as possible.
Gamification is the learning industry's latest defense against distractions, providing learning material by playing games. Generally, this keeps people engaged for longer than conventional online learning.
Informative learning has to be made quickly and easily accessible. Learning paths are expected to create a personalised experience to cater for your learning style. It’s reported that when delivering instructor-led training, you only have 10-15 seconds to hook your audience.
When delivering a long-form course learning, providers break them down into small chunks. This way information can be consumed in short bursts.
Modern learners like to learn through social forms. 73% say that they retain knowledge better when other people share it. This ranges from reading other people's comments and listening to responses in class.
In-class learning can fulfil these needs. You listen to other's questions, undertake group activities and be in a social enviroment. Alternatively online group training or webinars can easily fullfiul this need, whilst still being accessible from anywhere.
People are wanting to access learning faster and easier than ever before. The modern learner has a drive to better themselves through frequent consumption of knowledge. When searching for a career 60% of learners say they put learning development opportunities high up their list of priorities.
Using hybrid learning can cater towards these growing needs. A mixture of in class and online learning can be an extremely powerful tool if administered correctly.
With a growing desire for informative and engaging learning that classic in-class training can’t serve, how can technology help?
The $250 billion e learning industry helps to fill that void, providing captivated learning seamlessly to large groups and individuals.
Here’s 5 ways which technology can help with learning:
When E learning was first introduced it only serviced visual learners. Now the fast growing industry covers all learning styles.
Auditory learners are covered with podcasts and pre recorded lectures. Visual learners consume engaging videos, interactive workbooks, gamification and knowledge quizzes. Tactile learners can get “hands on” by using their phones or ipads to interact with training and virtually build different components of a subject.
Socialised learning is administered through virtual classrooms with completion leaderboards which helps cater towards modern learners.
It used to be the case that online training was only digested through your computer. Now Learning Management Systems (LMS) make a vast range of formats available through mobile and tablet.
Catering towards the modern learner by allowing learning to be flexible, taken anywhere and at any time. Learning mobile apps are user friendly, fast and create an enjoyable experience.
E learning allows for easy and quick consumption of content. Bitesize formats are widely available which allow users to complete course sections in a matter of minutes. This fits around modern learners' busy schedules.
Pre tailored content means that users can consume at any time and are not bound to set timeframes like it’s in class predecessor. According to Tech Jury on average users consume knowledge 40%-60% quicker through online training, ultimately saving a vast amount of time.
Whilst e Learning has the ability to deliver learning to the masses it also provides customisable learning pathways to cater to all learning styles. With an increase in the use of artificial intelligence and utilsing the rich data of LMS systems individual learners experience can be tailored to them.
This makes sure that they are provided content in the right learning style for them. The data is also accessible on the back end which lets administrators easily look for areas of upskilling to take participants knowledge to the next level.
As we alluded to earlier, modern learners want knowledge available at their fingertips. Online learning provides exactly that. Providers boast catalogs of 1000’s of courses covering all industries and learning formats.
Most learning organisations will regularly update their content so you have the most current knowledge available with a click of a button. These cover both broad topics and niches within given sectors.
More so than ever we are now expecting our learning pathways to be tailored to our individual learning style. Ultimately helping to fully optimise our consumption and engagement learning programs.
myAko does exactly that by providing engaging bitesize learning through mobile, tablet or laptops. With over 2,000 information packed courses available on the platform all learning styles are catered to.
Courses are easily delivered to large groups or to individuals using intuitive authoring tools and in depth reporting helps you to further tailor learning pathways.
Get in touch with our team today here to get hands on with the powerful and adaptive myAko system.
One of the team is ready to show you how everything works and answer any questions you might have!
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