You designed an online learning course for adult learners. The learners primarily are individuals who have a tight schedule as they manage their work, parenting, and household chores.

They hardly have a social life or ‘me time’. Between all this, they manage to take an online course and make a quick attempt to pass the course.

As time went by, the learners could not remember what they had learned in the course. Though they received the credits hours for the course.

What went wrong? Why weren’t the learners able to recall what they had learned?

Well, this is called “Ebbinghaus” or “The Forgetting Curve”. This shows how information is lost over time when you do not try to retain it.

According to a Practical Psychology report on the Rate of Forgetting, most of the forgetting occurs within the first hour of learning. And that’s not all. After a day or two, we typically forget around 75% of what we have learned.

The reason is the human brain cannot retain information by reading or learning just once. Although, the rate at which a person forgets depends on several factors such as memory strength, how engaging the content is, and physiological factors such as stress.

To put it briefly, spaced learning comprises breaking a long course into several sessions or modules of shorter durations with breaks in between the sessions. With this approach of teaching, learners can retain the information taught in the course.

The spaced learning theory goes way back to 1885 when German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus hypothesized the Forgetting Curve and introduced the spacing effect.

“According to the Forgetting Curve, the learnings are forgotten over time in the absence of any attempt to reinforce them.”

Another key aspect of spaced learning theory is the repetition of concepts. Repetition helps to memorize and improve long-term learning and recall.

“Studies have proved that the spaced learning psychology enhances long-term retention by around 200%.”

In eLearning, spaced learning concept provides online learners with an opportunity to engage and assimilate the knowledge before moving on to the next session of the eLearning course.

Because of decreased cognitive overload, the learners feel they are in much better control and, their stress level decreases. This makes their eLearning experience not just enjoyable but far more effective.

1. Spaced Retrieval is like the aspirin of instructional design. It has multiple benefits and very few side effects. — Will Thalheimer
2. Retrieving knowledge from memory is more beneficial when practice sessions are spaced out so that some forgetting occurs before you try to retrieve it again. The added effort required to recall the information makes learning stronger. — Henry L. Roediger III, a professor of psychology at Washington University
3. The spacing effect is one of the oldest and best-documented phenomena in the history of learning and memory research. — Harry Bahrick & Lynda Hall

When the human brains have almost forgotten something, it makes them work harder to remember that info. Spaced learning gives the learner’s brain a workout each time when he/she revisits the material.

In a cram session, all the information is stored in the learner’s short-term memory (which means the learner is going to forget the information in some time). When you implement spaced learning into your learning courses, the material is able to make its way into the learner’s long-term memory instead.

That’s why and how spaced learning works! In the first couple of sessions, the learner’s brain will be working hard to recall the information. But, as the learner revisits the material, it will become easier to remember and build upon.

An eLearning course, therefore, must facilitate learning and knowledge such that it can be retained. There are several methods available that you can use in your online courses to help your learners challenge the forgetting curve.

We have recently conducted a survey about some real-life use cases of the spaced learning concept. We asked the education industry experts to share their experience on spaced learning, how they implemented it and what was the results.

Here’s what Redditors have to say on Spaced Learning:

Spaced learning might sound like a slower process than some of most conventional approaches like full-day training courses. But spaced learning can be super effective if implemented correctly, and offers plenty of benefits.

1. Easy Learning and Less Load:
Working and learning at the same time is not easy. If the learner is challenged in their daily life, then adding more learning stuff to their schedule, is not going to benefit at all.

And if their minds are exhausted, then their chances of learning, understanding, absorbing, and recalling new knowledge become slim.
Then, what’s the point of investing time and resources into training programs, if learners are unlikely to recall that information?

This is why spaced learning exercises are separated by breaks. Small breaks for the mind to think about something else, or nothing else. This way, the brain has less of a load to take at any given time.

So, learners feel reduced mental exhaustion and are more likely to assimilate the information they’re learning when they’re learning it. They’ll have more mental energy for the daily challenge presented by work, too.

2. Facilitate Long-Term Remembering:
Spaced learning improves learning. But it’s very important to be specific about this. Spacing repetitions over time facilitates long-term remembering. It also enables learners to store information in memory in a manner that makes the information more resistant.

3. Store Information in Memory:
Spaced learning also enables learners to store information in memory in a manner that makes the information more resistant.

3. Learning Concepts More Interesting:
Spaced learning makes the learning concepts more interesting. And, encourage learners to study more efficiently without wasting time.

With so many benefits, wouldn’t you too want to adopt spaced learning into your eLearning courses, or rather create an effective ‘spaced eLearning course’?

Here are a few tips you should consider while developing a Spaced eLearning Course:

#Tip 1. Build spaced learning within course design  

The key is to build spaced learning within the course design by applying the formula for spaced eLearning, which is, conduct three intensive eLearning sessions separated with two ten-minute breaks. During the breaks, distractor activities that cover other learning objectives that are not connected to the learning outcome are performed by the learners.

These include alternative learning activities, such as a video or audio that is associated with the learning material.

This approach is best suited for complex concepts or topics, as it allows the online learners to absorb the knowledge and then move onto the next eLearning session.

#Tip 2. Keep it brief   

Ensure that the duration of the eLearning is under ten minutes. Three to five minutes is the ideal duration for the content that an average human brain can take at a time.

In case a lot of instructional material needs to be covered, then the best alternative is to divide the learning material into a series of micro-learnings.

For example, in product training, giving information in nuggets spaced out over time provides the learners with the confidence for using the product effectively.

Similarly, new hires may feel overwhelmed if a lot of information is being presented in an onboarding training session. Instead, smaller sessions of eLearning will allow them to absorb the information without being stressed.

#Tip 3. Keep repeating the information in different contexts  

Separate the learning material into bite-sized chunks of eLearning making sure that each concept is repeated in different contexts, such as, through analogies, story-telling, visual aids, audio, scenarios, case studies, or simulations.

This not only helps prevent boredom but also caters to different learning types that help in reinforcing learning in different ways.

Each concept must be repeated at least two or three times to ensure the spacing effect gets implemented successfully.

#Tip 4. Take breaks  

Keeping the spaced learning formula in mind, take breaks to prevent cognitive overload and allow the learners to process the information they have learned. The more a concept is repeated, the longer should be the breaks between sessions.

Make the course material available after a few days or weeks. With this, you can restrict your learners to access the course modules or activities only after a particular date or time.

Ensure continuous reinforcement of new skills or ideas.

By applying the principle of active recall, learners must be given a chance to apply their new learnings into practice. This can be done by presenting real-life scenarios-based activities.

#Tip 5. Quiz   

Quizzing is one of the best methods for learners to recall and apply their knowledge.

Quizzes ideally must include questions on ongoing and past lessons.

The questions designed must be such that the learners are made to recall and apply the same information but in various ways such as drag and drop, true or false, fill in the blank, or scenario-based questions.

With this approach, quizzes encourage the learners to not just engage with the content but promote active learning and help improve retention too.

#Tip 6. Build on pre-existing knowledge  

Linking a real-world story to a lesson that has already been learned has always been an effective learning strategy.

The same applies to eLearning.

By linking new concepts to prior knowledge, along with ensuring that the concepts are not disconnected helps learners connect between the new concepts and the skills or knowledge they have already been applying in real-life.

Reviewing a session after its completion is one of the ways to achieve this.  Reviewing strengthens retention by building on the learner’s prior knowledge, thereby also giving a chance to repeat the spaced concept.

#Tip 7. Multi-sensory experience  

A learning experience that appeals to all the senses and creates an emotional connection remains memorable.

Therefore, a course must be designed in a way that integrates the use of touch, sound, and sight. Simulations, gaming activities, videos and, animations create a multi-sensory experience.

Learners would like to invest in an online learning program that gives them long-term knowledge that they can apply on-the-job and progress in their career.

Retention of knowledge and problem-solving are the key reasons that will make them come back to take your courses. And spaced learning gives you just that advantage. Instancy platform is designed to support multiple modalities and content types ideally suitable for spaced learning.

Furthermore, you can add rules to your learning paths to space the content or remind the learners about previously learned information. To learn more, please visit Learning Experience Platform | LXP Solution | Instancy.