More with Micah

 As a part of my budgeting presentation (see here) I included a micro-learning spaced reinforcement exercise (see here, here and here for ore on that learning technique). But I had the chance to discuss this with Micah in another in my series of conversations with Micah (see more here and here).

It’s a fun tool. It’s not ideal in that it’s only text. The last micro-learning tool I used we were able to develop in Articulate Rise. That gave it a far sleeker look.

Text alone isn’t the best and is very limiting in terms of transfer of learning. The best model would be a hybrid model that delivers to the trainee via text or via micro-learning app so that they are reinforcing between the two. Haven't quite figured out how to make that happen yet, but it’s still early. Something will come up.

At work we use it to augment and reinforce learning objectives for our eLearning, our instructor-led classes and our virtual classes. It's just one more thing that helps get the message across and sticks in the learner's mind. We use "Mobile Coach" to create them. We hope to have our own system built and set up to use soon. 

At the moment, the most effective way we use the tool, is in using it to gauge how well our Virtual Reality training is doing (see here). We test the learner directly after the training then again a week later to determine if their memory after virtual is more resilient than the memory after traditional training. 

Great to be able to provide a tool to augment even the most simple presentations that I have. 

Microlearning Apps Follow Up

I got two emails from readers asking about microlearning and what some great microleanring apps are. I wrote a paper on this and ran across some terrific articles that I've listed below. The first two I have posted below give quick overviews, and many of the others are quite worthwhile, but one resource that I really like is the book Make it Stick by Brown, Roediger,  & McDaniel. Make it Stick is a worthwhile read for anyone trying to find ways to make learning more effective and is generally worth re-reading as well. 

One of the best representative examples of this spaced iterative learning that I have run into would be the language learning app "Duolingo." I began taking a Duolingo course to learn Spanish and I was surprised by how Duolingo: 

1) broke down large classes into small bits (micro-learning) 

2) delivered and reminded the user to take the small bits over multiple days and weeks (spaced learning) and 

3) never really "taught" anything, but rather only quizzed the user (iterative learning), similar to flashcards where the user learns through failure.  

I've challenged my eLearning development team to begin trying to present material to our trainees in this style at times. Imagine that instead of telling a trainee the rules and regulations about knife safety then quizzing them on it, which is what we do now, we quiz them over and over until they get it right themselves. It would hopefully yield some variety and challenge the trainees more than the passive style of training they are used to.

Karpicke, J. (2016). A Powerful Way to Improve Learning and Memory; Practicing Retrieval Enhances Long-Term, Meaningful Learning. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2016/06/learning-memory (Links to an external site.)

Karpicke, J. & Roediger, H. (2007). Expanding Retrieval Practice Promotes Short-Term Retention, but Equally Spaced Retrieval Enhances Long-Term Retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2007, Vol 33, No 4, pp. 704-719.

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L. III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Larsen, D. (2014). Picking the Right Does: The Challenges of Applying Spaced Testing to Education. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-14-00170.1 (Links to an external site.)

Logan, J. & Balota, D. (2008). Expanded vs. Equal Interval Spaced Retrieval Practice: Exploring Different Schedules of Spacing and Retention Interval in Younger and Older Adults. Psychology Press. DOI: 10.1080/13825580701322171

Maddox, G. & Balota, D. (2015). Retrieval Practice and Spacing Effects in Young and Older Adults: An Examination of the Benefits of Desirable Difficulty. Mem Cognit. 2015 July; 43 (5): pp. 760-774. DOI: 10.3758/s13421-014-0499-6

Research Purpose, Questions, & Rationale for Virtual Reality and Emotion Exercises

The Health and Safety Council (HASC) is a non-profit contractor association that trains contractors in safety and skills tasks needed for working in petrochemical and oil refining facilities. 

Due to the large number of contractors who work on these sites, the most cost-effective and efficient method of providing this training has been computer-based training (CBT). 

HASC is researching the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) as a tool to augment these CBTs to make CBTs more effective since finding more effective, engaging ways to utilize CBT training falls within HASC's mission (Health and Safety Council, 2006). As a part of this innovation, HASC is working to make the VR training more effective though the use of emotional videos.

In 2020, HASC developed a CBT that included VR exercises and studied the efficacy of VR exercises by comparing tests between a control group and an experimental group. The control group was provided a standard CBT with knowledge checks and tests. The experimental group had the same content as the control group but was allowed to take VR exercises to reinforce learning objectives. The analysis of this 2020 study showed that CBT courses augmented with VR exercises provided more resilient long-term memory formation than those without VR exercises (Health and Safety Council, 2020). 

HASC has released another CBT course with VR exercises that includes job-relevant videos with an emotionally compelling storyline. These are taken in the fully immersive VR headset along with the exercises. The intent of this new CBT is to determine what effects VR exercises with emotionally compelling videos might have on learners' understanding of the training concepts and the gravity of the procedures the training covers. Other studies such as Tyng et al. (2017) and Diemer et al. (2015), have found links between emotion and long-term memory formation and HASC intends to provide greater learner long-term memory formation using emotion as well as VR.

Rationale for the Study

HASC has developed a CBT course with VR exercises with emotionally compelling videos to try and increase long-term memory retention for the learners who take the course. This has been demonstrated in other studies where emotions are elicited via video and VR exercises (Marín-Morales et al., 2018, and Diemer et al., 2015). HASC hopes that videos showing interviews with affected family members and friends will create a sympathetic, emotionally resonant episode for learners that will increase the chances of retaining and recalling information later. When considering memories of our past, Holland and Kensinger (2010) write that "the past we recall often consists primarily of moments imbued with emotions" (p. 7). Additionally, Holland and Kensinger (2010) note that experiences that are more relevant and personal will likely be remembered more than those that have less relevance.

HASC deliberately excluded any analytical video analysis or emotions that might be perceived as negative when developing these videos. As Knorzer et al. (2016) write, more positive emotions in learning are a facilitator of knowledge and help learners enhance memory. In their investigation of Cognitive-Affective Theory of Learning with Media (CATLM), they researched whether positive emotions before learning increased memory and instead found that although "learner's emotional state had a crucial impact on learning outcomes: Learners with a negative emotional state before learning outperformed learners with a positive emotional state" (Knorzer et al., 2016, p. 627). Therefore, rather than focusing on positive or negative emotional states per se, HASC's study will focus on feelings such as empathy, compassion, sympathy, and pity. Also, unlike the Knorzer et al. (2016) analysis, the emotionally resonant videos are played after the VR exercises and summarize the procedure rather than being shown before the learning. Another rationale for providing memories that are sympathetic rather than negative comes from a study on emotional memory and event memory by Kuriyama et al. (2010). The authors found through their study that in terms of episodic memory, "the more fearsome the event, the more likely it is to be inaccurately recognized" (p. 133) despite findings in other studies that seem to show event memory being strong when strong emotions are present, especially fear. 

Unlike Knorzer et al. (2016), Zlomuzica et al. (2016) found that through their experiments on providing emotional resonance through short videos and their effect on episodic memory, the impact of positive and anxious emotional states had no change on episodic memory retention. Zlomuzica et al. (2016) found "an inverse correlation between the level of negative arousal and performance scores in memory for spatial context" (p. 185). The final results from Zlomuzica et al. (2016) found that emotional arousal of the test subject before the learning had a more negligible effect on episodic memory but may "hamper the memory for the event-location association." As stated previously, unlike Zlomuzica et al. (2016), HASC hopes to stimulate emotional arousal after the learning and the training, rather than prior. 

Knorzer et al. (2015) also conducted experiments regarding prior knowledge and how prior knowledge might affect cognitive load and memory. Learner's "with high working memory capacity perceive complex learning materials as less difficult and can compensate additionally imposed (extraneous) cognitive load" (Knorzer et al., 2015, p. 620), and a "higher working memory capacity has also been found to be a significant predictor for learning success in multimedia learning" (Knorzer et al., 2015, p. 620). 

Many of the studies have been conducted using subjects who are not a part of the industrial field workforce that HASC supports. HASC works with field workers, leaders, and contractors who work around hazards on a daily basis that could cause serious injury to themselves, their colleagues, or environmental hazards for the communities (Oil and gas extraction - hazards, n.d.). Although there are several studies on industrial workers and VR training efficacy (Gavish et al., 2015 and Vasilevski & Birt, 2020 and Colombo et al., 2014), there is a gap in the research of how VR and training that elicits emotion can encourage these workers to perform their work more safely. 

Research Purpose

The purpose of this research is to determine how emotionally compelling videos affect the learner's understanding of the concepts of the CBT VR training. There is evidence from HASC's 2020 VR study (Health and Safety Council, 2020) that there is an increase in long-term memory formation when VR exercises are added to traditional CBT. There is little research that combines emotion, VR, and micro-learning exercises of this kind for the contracting community that HASC supports. The videos that have been created as a part of this experiment show learners an interview with family members of industrial workers who were critically injured or killed in real-world accidents using the same procedures as those the learners are trained on in the CBT course. As stated in other studies like Knorzer et al. (2015) and Zlomuzica et al. (2016), there is a link between creating resilient episodic memory and the learner's emotional state. Since the videos are directly relevant to the work procedures in the training course, there should be direct relevance for the learner, which like Holland and Kensinger (2010) find, provides for more resilient memory formation for the learner. Additionally, many HASC learners are contractors who have taken multiple courses at the council over many years. In many cases, these are redundant training courses and they reinforce classes that the contractor learner may have taken many times. As Knorzer et al. (2015) found regarding prior knowledge affecting cognitive load and memory, this prior knowledge should lead to greater long-term memory development as learners will be less overly taxed. Finally, since there is a relationship between positive and negative emotions on learner memory, rather than focusing on positive or negative emotional states, HASC will focus on feelings such as empathy, compassion, sympathy, and pity to arouse emotion in the learner.

Research Questions

The research questions HASC hopes to answer include:

• How do the learners who take the CBT courses with VR exercises describe the training course and concepts within them?

• What impact do the learners believe the VR and videos will have on their desire to follow procedures outlined in the course when they are in the field?

• How do the learners discuss the impact of the VR and videos compared to other training they have taken?

Definition of Key Terms/Constructs

CBT The acronym for Computer Based Training, the generic delivery process of providing training through a computer terminal. 

Contractor Workers, primarily field workers, who work on behalf of refinery and petrochemical facility owners. The predominant learning audience at HASC.

Episodic Memory A part of declarative memory that is focused on the specific, unique events around personal experiences (Schöne et al., 2019). 

HASC The common name/acronym for the Health and Safety Council. A non-profit operating in Pasadena, Texas since 1990 that trains contractors primarily within the petrochemical and oil and refinery industry to provide safety and skills training. 

Long-Term Memory Learning or recollection of events that are stored over an extended period of time. 

VR The acronym for Virtual Reality, 3D, immersive technology that provides interactive simulations for the learner.

 

References

Colombo, S., Nazir, S., & Manca, D. (2014). Immersive virtual reality for training and decision making: Preliminary results of experiments performed with a plant simulator. SPE Economics & Management, 6(04), 165–172.

Diemer, J., Alpers, G. W., Peperkorn, H. M., Shiban, Y., & Mühlberger, A. (2015). The impact of perception and presence on emotional reactions: a review of research in virtual reality. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 26.

Gavish, N., Gutiérrez, T., Webel, S., Rodríguez, J., Peveri, M., Bockholt, U., & Tecchia, F. (2015). Evaluating virtual reality and augmented reality training for industrial maintenance and assembly tasks. Interactive Learning Environments, 23(6), 778–798.

Health and Safety Council. (2006). Vision and Mission Statements. https://www.hasc.com/about-hasc/vision-mission/

Health and Safety Council. (2020). Gauging Effectiveness of 3D VR for Memory Retrieval. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jvogEWVVL7BLQSZ08bab9S1RGS-llAwN/view?usp=sharing

Holland, A. C., & Kensinger, E. A. (2010). Emotion and autobiographical memory. Physics of Life Reviews, 7(1), 88–131.

Knörzer, L., Brünken, R., & Park, B. (2016). Emotions and multimedia learning: the moderating role of learner characteristics: Emotions in multimedia learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 32(6), 618–631.

Kuriyama, K., Soshi, T., Fujii, T., & Kim, Y. (2010). Emotional memory persists longer than event memory. Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 17(3), 130–133.

Marín-Morales, J., Higuera-Trujillo, J. L., Greco, A., Guixeres, J., Llinares, C., Scilingo, E. P., Alcañiz, M., & Valenza, G. (2018). Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 13657.

Oil and gas extraction - hazards. (n.d.). Osha.Gov. Retrieved October 9, 2021, from https://www.osha.gov/oil-and-gas-extraction/hazards

Schöne, B., Wessels, M., & Gruber, T. (2019). Experiences in virtual reality: A window to autobiographical memory. Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 38(3), 715–719.

Tyng, C. M., Amin, H. U., Saad, M. N. M., & Malik, A. S. (2017). The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1454.

Vasilevski, N., & Birt, J. (2020). Analysing construction student experiences of mobile mixed reality enhanced learning in virtual and augmented reality environments. Research in Learning Technology, 28(0). https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v28.2329

Zlomuzica, A., Preusser, F., Totzeck, C., Dere, E., & Margraf, J. (2016). The impact of different emotional states on the memory for what, where and when features of specific events. Behavioural Brain Research, 298(Pt B), 181–187.

Experimenting in my Organization

I was intrigued by the chapter on test subjects in the book I'm currently reading, The Dissertation Journey. My organization allows me to practice and develop teaching techniques on our adult learners who visit us each day. We get over 1000 field workers from the refining industry come through our doors each day. We train them on safety and skills that are necessary to keep them safe at their jobs. My role is to improve the level of our instruction both through computer based training (CBT) and our instructor-led training classes.

Naturally, if I'm asked to improve our level of instruction, it's necessary to try things out on groups of learners and get feedback. If we have a control group and an experimental group, and if what I've proposed works, then there is a chance that the experimental group will get more and better training than the control group. This in turn means that the control group is not as well trained.

This could be a real problem when dealing with dangerous equipment, hazardous chemicals, or safety training. For example, we ran a test to see if micro-learning training would be effective for a Basic Refinery training class. Throughout the day we send micro-learning courses to our learner's cell phones, then gauged whether or not they class as a whole performed better on the final exams than those classes without micro-learning reinforcement. The intent was to determine if "spaced practice" events were beneficial to the learner. Again, a major concern was that those other classes that did not get the benefit of the spaced practice might not be as well trained, or as prepared for events in their job lives. 

What we have settled on is to ensure that we never go below the set training standard that is mandated by OSHA or that we have set for ourselves as an organization. In the Army we were taught that we could always do more than an explicit order demanded, but we could never do less. We could add to an order, but never take away from. We are following this same standard with our experiments at my organization. Naturally we want all of our learners to be given the opportunity to train more effectively, but to gauge that effectiveness we have to be able to have a standard and measure against it. Still, it's nice to have the thought experiment that comes about after reading Ch. 5 that makes us re-evaluate our techniques to ensure we are putting the safety of our learners first and foremost in our processes.

Reference:

Roberts, C. & Hyatt, L. (2019). The dissertation journey (3rd edition). Corwin Press.

Our Homeschool Innovation Project

For our last project, we had to pretend to be a private consulting firm and provide a digital transformation or innovation to a company. So, we decided as a group that we were hired by a smaller Home School Service Organization to offer them a solution that will help them remain competitive, versatile, and adaptable in today’s technologically driven world.

Our plan is to offer our client a multi-level solution. 

This solution will include having an online integrated platform via the homeschool site and a phone app that can be downloaded by parents and children that can provide a multitude of functions such as:

• Allow for community discussions, etc. that allow families to find easy answers to homeschool questions.
• Allow for a kid’s space for kids to discuss and interact with other homeschool kids of the same age and with the same interests.
• Provide a “spaced practice” or quizzing opportunity for homeschool parents to design, leverage quizzes from other parents, and deliver to their kid’s smartphones for reinforcement and practice of course material they just reviewed, etc.
• Provide a schedule and course management tool to track progress along the years.

This in our opinion and based on data and research findings would appeal to homeschoolers because there has been an increase in homeschooling numbers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Homeschooling organizations may not have this level of support and innovation that is needed to keep up with the growing community. In addition, this service can provide a better quality of homeschooling by gaining more socialization from other homeschoolers using the app and providing another reinforcement mechanism such as smartphone-delivered micro-learning quizzes to homeschoolers beyond just standard quizzes and tests.

Homeschooler parents are generally more independent than most and might love the idea of being able to create their own quizzes for their kids and being able to share what they have created with other parents, in part or in whole. There is an impression that homeschooled kids do not get the social interactions that traditional school kids get because they are not taking part in traditional educational settings. The platform and app will allow for chat and discussion between homeschool kids to overcome the lack of socialization which is important for development.

• Spaced Practice Sample 1 see HERE
• Spaced Practice Sample 2 see HERE

Larger homeschool organizations may already have something like this however, our role as consultants is to target these services to smaller homeschool organizations to gain a competitive advantage by helping them keep up with the larger organizations, in addition to opening up several pricing models designed to allow for non-regular subscribers to enjoy the same community aspects and spaced practice of the platform at a lower cost. 

In addition to our document, we have created a presentation of our proposal which includes additional resources on what our consulting firm, DAEA Consulting  Download DAEA Consulting can do for quizzes for our homeschooling clients. 

References 

Agarwal, P. K., Henry, L., Mark, A., & Kathleen, B. (n.d.). How to use retrieval practice to improve learning. Retrievalpractice.Org. Retrieved May 19, 2022

Duvall, S., 17, N., & Tags: News Research November 17. (n.d.). New research shows homeschool growth across all races, and income categories. HSLDA. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://hslda.org/post/new-research-shows-homeschool-growth-across-all-race-income-categories

Goossens, N. A. M. C., Camp, G., Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L., & Tabbers, H. K. (2014). The effect of retrieval practice in primary school vocabulary learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(1), 135-142. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2956

McDaniel, M. A., Agarwal, P. K., Huelser, B. J., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger,Henry L., I.,II. (2011). Test-enhanced learning in a middle school science classroom: The effects of quiz frequency and placement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(2), 399-414. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021782

NHES. National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES). (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/nhes/

Nonpublic & Home Schools. SOM - State of Michigan. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from      https://www.michigan.gov/mde/services/flexible-learning/options/nonpub-home

Retrieval Practice: A Power Tool for Lasting Learning. (2020). Educational Leadership : Journal of the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development, N.E.A., 77(8).

Storm, B. C., Bjork, R. A., & Storm, J. C. (2010). Optimizing retrieval as a learning event: When and why expanding retrieval practice enhances long-term retention. Memory & Cognition, 38(2), 244-253. doi:https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.38.2.24

How Much Are You Forgetting?

I had the opportunity to speak to new leaders participating in our Foundational Leadership classes. In both cases, I referred them to this LinkedIn page to discuss their experiences, continue learning about leadership techniques, and stay connected with other trainees, other leaders, and our facilitators. 

One of the reasons for this LinkedIn page is to help overcome the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. As Nikhil Sonnad writes in Quartz, "The forgetting curve is a mathematical formula that describes the rate at which something is forgotten after it is initially learned." 

Proposed by Hermann Ebbinghaus over 100 years ago, it suggests that memory does not fade in a straight line or leveling off, but rather as a curve shown in the image on this page. Memories begin to fade immediately, and they do so quickly. 

At HASC, we work to design and develop training to help overcome this forgetting curve. We identify learning objectives to help learners remember the most important material and reinforce those objectives through knowledge checks, quizzes, and tests. 

At HASC, we use a "scaffolding" technique to develop training. We build on the knowledge already learned and implanted in our trainee's memories. Lastly, we work to interact with learners once they have left our classrooms and labs through chatbots and micro-learning. All of these are designed to delay forgetting that occurs and reinforce the memory for the learner.

In creating these reinforcement mechanisms, or "retrieval practice" events, we work to move the learning from the learner's short-term and working memory into their long-term memory. 

By making those memories of the learning objectives more resilient and strengthening those neural pathways, we make our learner's memories of those learning objectives stronger. In our industry, critical information must be remembered when it is needed and without hesitation. Finding ways to make memories of training objectives stronger goes hand-in-hand with our mission of "building safe workplaces."

Undermining the forgetting curve by creating retrieval practice mechanisms, extends the memory and makes it stronger; this is what this LinkedIn page is designed to do.

By visiting our HASC Leadership LinkedIn page, discussing aspects of leadership with other leaders here, and asking questions and engaging, you will be undermining the forgetting curve and making better use of your training time and money.

Homeschool Digital Helper

I'm grouped up with a couple of my classmates for a class project. We need to consult on a digital transformation for a business and give them guidance on navigating the change. 

So, we have decided to be a private consulting firm that was hired by a smaller Home School Service Organization to offer them a solution that will help them remain competitive, versatile, and adaptable in today’s technologically driven world.

Our plan is to offer our client a multi-level solution. One that includes having an online integrated platform via the homeschool site and a phone app that can be downloaded by parents and children that can provide a multitude of functions such as:

• Allow for community discussions, etc. that allow families to find easy answers to homeschool questions.
• Allow for a kid’s space for kids to discuss and interact with other homeschool kids of the same age and with the same interests.
• Provide a “spaced practice” or quizzing opportunity for homeschool parents to design, leverage quizzes from other parents, and deliver to their kid’s smartphones for reinforcement and practice of course material they just reviewed, etc.

Provide a schedule and course management tool to track progress along the years. 

This is our opinion and data based on potential research findings would appeal to homeschoolers because there has been an increase in homeschooling numbers sense covid and homeschooling organizations may not have this level of support and innovation that is needed to keep up with the growing community. In addition, this service can provide a better quality of homeschooling by gaining more socialization from other homeschoolers using the app and providing another reinforcement mechanism such as smartphone-delivered micro-learning quizzes to homeschoolers beyond just standard quizzes and tests.

Homeschooler parents are generally more independent than most and might love the idea of being able to create their own quizzes for their kids and being able to share what they have created with other parents, in part or in whole. There is an impression that homeschooled kids do not get the social interactions that traditional school kids get because they are not taking part in traditional educational settings. The platform and app will allow for chat and discussion between homeschool kids to overcome the lack of socialization which is important for development.

Larger homeschool organizations may already have something like this, so our role as consultants is to provide a platform that gives smaller homeschool organizations a competitive advantage by helping them keep up with the larger organizations, and opening this up with pricing models designed to allow for non-regular subscribers to enjoy the same community aspects and spaced practice/long term memory development aspects of the platform/app.