Combining Two eLearning Techniques To Boost Learning Outcomes
Creating interesting learning content that attracts learners to complete your courses is only one part of achieving learning success. The other is accomplishing strong knowledge retention so that your audience doesn’t forget most of what they have learned as soon as the course ends. Boosting retention and recall is essential for learners to feel that your learning content made an impact in their professional or academic journeys and, therefore, be motivated to take more of your courses. An approach that seems to be successful in accomplishing this goal is combining spaced repetition and retrieval practice. While effective on their own, using these eLearning techniques in tandem can unlock next-level learning results for your audience.
In this article, we will explore what each technique involves, how you can combine them, and, most importantly, which benefits you can expect.
Defining Spaced Repetition And Retrieval Practice
What Is Spaced Repetition?
Spaced repetition involves revisiting information over time, ensuring that review sessions occur at increasingly longer intervals. In other words, instead of cramming all the information in one study session, learners are encouraged to revisit key concepts after a day, a week, a month, or a year. This method is effective because it prompts learners to revisit and re-establish what they learned just as they are about to forget it. This re-learning process is what enhances memory retention and makes information recall easier later on.
The activities that you can incorporate in your eLearning course to support spaced repetition may include the following:
- Scheduling review quizzes at increasing time intervals.
- Creating short microlearning modules that reintroduce key concepts.
- Utilizing algorithms that adjust the review schedule depending on learner performance.
What Is Retrieval Practice?
Retrieval practice describes the process of actively recalling previously learned information from memory. This is basically what learners are expected to be able to do after finishing a learning module or revising content. By making the effort to recall information instead of merely passively reviewing it, as is done in spaced repetition, learners reinforce neural pathways, contributing to the transfer of knowledge to long-term memory. This is what will eventually improve retention and application of knowledge in real-life situations.
You can implement retrieval practice through activities that most of us are familiar with, such as:
- Completing tests and quizzes.
- Learners testing themselves using flashcards.
- Answering scenario-based questions or reflection prompts that encourage learners to explain concepts in their own words.
How Can You Combine These Techniques?
Now that we know what these two eLearning techniques involve and how they can be used in a learning environment, you might be wondering how to combine them. Some practical ways in which you can make this happen are the following:
- Incorporate knowledge retrieval sessions into the eLearning course, spacing them over gradually increasing intervals.
- Use adaptive algorithms that adjust the intervals between retrieval sessions according to the learners’ performance and confidence levels.
- Include pop-up prompts and quizzes in your content to encourage learners to recall information actively while reviewing it.
- Provide feedback after each retrieval attempt to correct mistakes and reinforce key takeaways.
4 Benefits Of Blending Spaced Repetition And Retrieval Practice
In the previous sections, we mentioned multiple times that combining spaced repetition and retrieval practice enhances knowledge retention, recall, and transfer. Here, we will also talk about how this is achieved.
Enhances Long-Term Retention
One of the key advantages of combining these learning strategies is the positive impact they have on long-term retention. Specifically, spacing learning sessions puts learners in a position to revisit information just as they begin to forget it, as explained in the forgetting curve model. At this crucial moment, retrieving information from long-term memory is most effortful but highly beneficial. This approach reinforces memory traces and significantly strengthens retention compared to a cram session.
Improves Knowledge Transfer
Another benefit of blending spaced repetition and retrieval practice is that it provides multiple opportunities for learners to apply what they have learned. Each time learners retrieve or review information, they approach it from a different stage in their learning journey or professional routine. As a result, they can apply the information in new or different contexts. This is particularly beneficial for learners’ problem-solving skills, as they learn to be more flexible in using newly acquired knowledge.
Boosts Engagement And Motivation
It is important for learners to feel motivated and engaged throughout their learning journey. It is easier to achieve that by providing frequent, bite-sized retrieval activities that encourage learners to review information and complete additional modules. These learning reminders also create measurable progress milestones for learners. Whether they successfully complete the activity or realize they remember less than they should, learners are motivated to revisit the training resources to learn more or address any gaps. Eventually, their ability to recall information will improve, leading to a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence.
Supports Mastery Learning
The final reason to consider combining spaced repetition and retrieval practice is to help learners attain the highest level of understanding of a given topic. Mastery learning, as this approach is known, encourages learners to fully understand a subject before moving on to the next. As learners return to learning materials regularly, instructors and learning platforms can easily identify knowledge gaps and address them systematically. This way, learners are more likely to achieve true mastery rather than superficial learning, ensuring they can effectively recall and apply what they have learned.
Conclusion
Combining spaced repetition and retrieval practice demonstrates the impact of blending simple activities that you may already be providing to your audience. These approaches emphasize that the best outcomes come from treating learning as an iterative process instead of a one-time event. Incorporating blended activities, as the ones we described in this article, will help you not only in engaging learners but also in strengthening their knowledge comprehension, retention, and recall. This will, in turn, guarantee more effective application of newly acquired knowledge and overall more impactful learning strategies.
