The Science Behind Spaced Learning

Educators struggle to overcome the knowledge retention challenge. Both offline and online teachers want their students to remember what they learned. To solve this problem, educators spent years on research. They attempted to find ways to increase retention. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a psychologist and researcher, demonstrated something known as the?spacing effect. According to Ebbinghaus, educators can maximise retention by repeating instructions at regular intervals.

Designing Spaced Learning Courses

To create a spaced learning course, educators need to chunk their content. Each chunk becomes one module. Let’s assume learners complete one module today. They will go through the module again after a week. Then again after two weeks and once more after three weeks. Each time, the gap between retaking the module increases. The students will take the module over and over until they master the subject matter. Educators can define the number of repetitions and the length of gaps. They will consider the complexity of the content, each learner’s profile and the levels of mastery required for this.

What Makes Spaced Learning Effective?

To explain why spaced learning is effective, we need to understand how human memory functions. Whenever we come across new information, it gets stored in our short-term working memory. We can only retain this information once it gets transferred to our long-term memory. Unfortunately, human memory is not permanent. If we do not recall information at regular intervals, we will likely forget it.

To better understand how we forget, we can look at the forgetting curve. The curve indicates how much we forget over time when we do not repeat an activity. Say you’re trying to master a new language. One day, you learn five new words. Over the next two weeks, you do not use those words at all. After 14 days, you will likely only remember two of the five words you learnt.

Spaced learning design attempts to overcome the forgetting curve. When learners repeat a module at intervals, they revise the content before they can completely forget it. As students keep repeating the information, their brain gets better at retaining it.

Incorporating Spaced Learning in Online Learning

Online educators can integrate spaced learning into their courses. To do this, they can follow these guidelines:

Shorter Modules: Educators must focus on keeping each module as short as possible.?

Frequent Reviews: They should integrate time to review older modules into their lesson plans. After each revision, teachers should assess how much knowledge students retain.

Recaps: A great way to integrate spaced retention is with recaps. Educators can start every new module with a quick summary of the previous one.

Bridge Content: To keep old information fresh, teachers can relate new content to old concepts. By doing this, they can introduce new topics while revising what they already know.

The Online Advantage

While creating spaced learning courses, online educators have an advantage. They can personalise the number and frequency of repetitions based on each learner’s forgetting curve. Teachers cannot create such personalised learning journeys in offline scenarios.

Spaced learning course designs can significantly improve knowledge retention. Educators who master the art of creating these courses can ensure long-term learning.