If you are creating a course, or any kind of learning experience (workshop, webinar, etc.) there are TWO results you really want to see:
- You want your students to learn something that transforms their lives in a lasting way,
and
- You want them to become raving fans who tell all of their friends about you!
In order for students to benefit from your course in a lasting way, there is something very important that your course design must enable them to do.
Your students have to remember what you taught them.
But most presentations, workshops, webinars and online courses do not present information in a way that makes it easy (or even possible!) for students to remember.
Think of it this way: how in the world can your students have a transformative experience, and then rave about the experience to others, if they don’t remember what they learned? If your students don’t remember what they learned, you haven’t delivered what you promised. If you haven’t delivered what you promised, your students are not going to become raving fans, they are not going to consider you an expert on the subject, and they are definitely not going to tell their friends to take your course!
Fortunately, there are lots of strategies you can use to help your students remember the key points of your teaching, and get the most out of their learning experience. We’re going to examine the first one right now.
Strategy: Retrieval Practice
Retrieval practice simply refers to the activity of trying to recall something you are working on learning. For example, you would be doing retrieval practice if you were reading something in a book, closed the book, and tried to recall what you read.
How it works
It turns out that the simple act of trying to remember something is one of the best ways to lock that thing into your memory. The reason for this is related to the way memories are coded into your brain. A memory is born when the cells in your brain (neurons) connect with each other in a certain pattern. It’s that pattern that causes the memory, and the more times you cause your brain to fire its neurons in the same pattern, the more permanent that pattern, and the memory, becomes.
If you want your students to remember something, one strategy you can use is simply asking them to recall it.
Let’s see how you could do this in your course.
How you can use it
One activity you can easily include in your presentation, workshop or course is giving your learners an opportunity to stop and reflect on a question about a key idea you just taught them. By asking them to reflect on it, you are giving them an opportunity to recall (or retrieve) the concept from memory.
Here’s what that could look like:
Example for a live presentation
In a live presentation, after describing a concept, simply stop and ask a question about it. Then pause for 5 seconds to let your students bring the answer into their mind. If you are using a visual presentation, put the question on a slide. For example if I were teaching about the value of retrieval practice for learning, I could ask the question:
“Think of one way you could incorporate retrieval practice into a learning experience you are designing.”
The act of bringing that example to mind will help to encode the concept of “retrieval practice” in the learner’s mind.
Examples for an online course
If you have an online course, consider following each instructional video with a single multiple-choice or short answer quiz question that captures the key take-away. The question doesn’t have to be very difficult, just enough to invite your students to stop for a moment and recall the key points.
Example 1
For example, you could use a multiple choice question that asks students to choose all of the correct answers related to the concept they just learned.
Quiz Question: Retrieval practice is valuable because it:
- Helps an idea move into a learner’s long-term memory
- Improves the chances a learner will remember the key points of a message
- Makes people agree with you
- Improves the chances that a learner will experience the transformation your course offers
Example 2
Or you could include a short answer question with a response box for students to type their answer. The answer doesn’t have to be graded for it to be effective, it’s the act of bringing the answer to mind that will help your students remember.
Quiz Question: Summarize what you remember about why retrieval practice is a good way to commit ideas to memory.
Summing it up
- Retrieval practice is recalling something you just learned to help commit the concept to memory
- It works because the act of trying to remember something is one of the best ways to lock that thing into your memory
- You can use this strategy by simply pausing in a presentation to ask your students to reflect on a concept you just taught them. Or by adding a quiz question (even an easy one!) after an instructional video
I hope you found this Bite-sized Teaching strategy helpful! I would love to hear how you plan to use this strategy in your presentations and courses. Leave a comment below to let me know!