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How Learners Learn

Consider one group of facts: all of the passwords you use in a given day. People typically need passwords for: voice mail (many people have two or three accounts-home, work, and mobile); e-mail (many people have two accounts, work and personal); automatic teller machine (ATM); alarm code for the home; cipher lock at the office; combination to a locker at the gym, passwords to secure websites, such as banking, travel, and e-commerce sites.

Admittedly, the human long-term memory has an infinite capacity. But the parts of memory for perceiving and retaining content have a much more limited capacity. Below is a simplified view of the human information processing system.

Figure 6W-1: Simplified View of the Human Information Processing System

Notice how all information enters the system through the senses. The system monitors all of the senses all of the time, but only registers material if something significant happens. By registering a message with the brain through more than one sense, that message is more likely to be retained. Because e-learning has the ability to incorporate sight, sound, and touch, carefully designed learning experiences can register messages with the human information processing system extremely well.

Notice, too, all information must go through short-term memory before it can be stored in long-term memory. Because short-term memory has a small capacity (tests place it at 7 plus or minus 2 items; said another way, that’s 5 to 9 items), instructional designers must avoid overloading it to increase the likelihood that learners will retain content.

One way to avoid overloading learners is by asking them to memorize only the most significant of material. For content that learners do not need to memorize, make sure that learners know where to find it when they need it. The biggest challenge, however, is eliminating material that learners do not really need to know, to avoid overloading learners’ brains.

Similarly, for content that learners must know, repeat it several times (and using the exact same description) to reinforce the learning.

Ever-increasing storage capacities on computers provide designers and developers of online learning programs with little incentive to curb the quantity of information presented in courses.

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