How to Improve Learning Retention

With the help of our Customer Success Manager, Lisa Taylor, let’s explore how to improve learning retention in your organizational training or e-learning!

1. Customize for each individual
2. Utilize the power of microlearning
3. Offer blended learning
4. Reinforce with knowledge checks

We’ll also show you how Pinnacle Series offers the perfect e-learning solution for maximum learning retention.

Customize for each individual

What’s one of the worst ways to manage learning? Force everyone to learn the same content at the same pace, regardless of their backgrounds, skill levels, or roles.

“Customizing for different skill levels according to job roles or specific project requirements helps break the learning into easily digestible hyper-relevant bites,” Taylor explains. “It is this hyper-relevance that drives engagement and motivation. When employees understand how the training is relevant to them and how it fits into individual or team development goals, it helps earn trust and fosters learning retention.”

Pinnacle Series’ built-in recommended learning feature brings personal insight to thousands in a short time. For example, when users are trying to understand or improve their skills with a type of AEC software (e.g., AutoCAD), they can take assessments to enable a customized learning path focused on their skill gaps. Skill assessments also highlight areas they have already mastered to explore a different progressive learning path with confidence.

Data analytics can also help organizations drill down into individual performance and respond to the team or organization-wide capability needs.

Utilize the power of microlearning

What is microlearning? Effectively, it’s bite-sized learning that people can seamlessly fit into their workdays, and connecting people with the right information when and how they want it.

“Microlearning improves retention rates because learners don’t have to clutter their memories with irrelevant information. Training is broken down based on relevancy and time constraints, and learners can easier grasp new ideas, concepts, and skills than through long-form learning,” Taylor says.

So whenever possible, avoid overwhelming learners with a firehose of information and remember to allow time to use what they’ve learned. The key is to encourage employees to find solutions by applying critical thinking skills rather than memorizing. If all the information is at their fingertips, employees will be able to go through the problem-solving process independently.

Offer blended learning

Keeping learners engaged is a common pitfall of organizational training. If the kind of learning you’re using is all the same, the repetitive nature can quickly make learners tune out and not retain information as well. So instead, keep it fresh, engaging, and exciting by using a blended learning approach.

Luckily, this is another aspect Pinnacle includes right out of the box! Taylor outlines all the different content types on the platform: “Leverage a unique combination of videos, documents, workflows, live event scheduling, and more to build high levels of interest and engagement in your following Pinnacle Series learning path.”

Allowing opportunities for reflection is another pillar of driving learning retention. Pinnacle Series’ live event feature enables you to provide opportunities to discuss shared successes, combat challenges, and enable context-specific discussions that reflect on the learning that has been completed. In addition, you can gain insightful metrics to influence your future training initiatives.

Reinforce with knowledge checks

Knowledge checks are often informal and provide employees an opportunity to review, reinforce, and reflect on their understanding of the content. Knowledge checks ensure the learner is actively engaged with the learning content and highlights areas that may need additional help in skill-building.

Summarization is a type of knowledge check that can impact retention. When we are asked to summarize what we have learned in our own words, it helps commit that information to memory.

“Knowledge checks have to be supported by periodic formal assessments. One of the main reasons learners don’t understand or retain new information is that what they know differs substantially from what they think they know. Without an assessment, managers are left with human reports of proficiency – with no objective agreement on the “scale.” Taylor notes.

Ensuring the training content and assessment content are closely aligned is essential. That way, learners will be forced to make sense of, recall, and immediately apply the information as soon as possible after absorbing it.

Ultimately the goal is to receive feedback like the below example from your employees.

“This course was quicker to complete and more relevant and applicable than other courses I’ve been on before. I am clear about my strengths and areas requiring growth and excited to apply what I have learned. ”

Want to see for yourself how to improve learning retention with Pinnacle Series? Schedule a demo or pilot with our team today!

Already a Pinnacle Series customer? Log in now to check out our tools that can help increase your team’s learning retention, like quizzes and on-demand videos.