Click here for sound! Countering the Training Half-Life

1
Click here for sound! Countering the Training
Half-Life

• Andrew Booth,
• Reader in Evidence Based Information Practice,
  University of Sheffield

2
Click here for sound!The Training Half-life?

• How long after a training session have our
  trainees forgotten half of what we have told them
  and how much longer to lose the other half?
• ... at the very moment when a learning period is
  finished, the brain has not had enough time to
  integrate the new information it has
  assimilatedIt needs a few minutes to complete
  and link firmly all the interconnections within
  the new material to let it 'sink in'.
• The decline that takes place after the small rise
  is a steep one within 24 hours of a one-hour
  learning period at least 80 per cent of detailed
  information is lost.
• (Buzan, 2005)

3
Click here for sound!We all know what he means!

• Lecture process by which the notes of a teacher
  become the notes of a student without passing
  through the minds of either Michael ODonnell

4
Click here for sound!Partial Learning

• While teachers are lecturing, students are not
  attending to what is being said 40 of the time

5
Click here for sound!Partial Recall

• In the first 10 minutes of lecture, students
  retain 70 of the information in the last ten
  minutes, 20

6
Click here for sound!Partial interest

• Students lose their initial interest, and
  attention levels continue to drop, as a lecture
  proceeds

7
Click here for sound!Partial education

• Four months after taking an introductory course,
  students knew only 8 more than a control group
  who had never taken the course

8
Click here for sound!One size does not fit all

• Training courses are designed around an average
  user (the one with 2.4 children!)
• At any point in time almost half our users are
  getting more than they want and the other
  (almost) half are getting stuff they already know
• They either decide what they need (and they are
  notorious for not being able to self-assess their
  competency e.g. beginners, intermediate,
  advanced) OR we decide what is best for them

9
Click here for sound!What do we typically
evaluate?

• Was this training session a pleasurable
  experience for you?
• ? ? ?
• We know this because they usually mention the
  biscuits! Or the heat of the room!
• Compared with.? Blood, faeces, urine,
  gangrene, death?

10
Click here for sound!Evaluation bypass

• We interpret mentions of the biscuits or the heat
  of the room as at least this means that there
  is nothing else more important to worry about
  (false positives).
• Whereas it could mean that this is what they
  consider a successful outcome from the session
  OR
• That we have designed a good instrument for
  assessing their physical comfort!

11
Click here for sound!Not having information
skills training can be..

• good because you have to learn the hard way.
  You tend to have better skills if you have had to
  find your own way around - but it would've been
  nice to have been eased into it, in a bit more
  structured way as well
• Goodall, D. L. and P. Brophy (1997). A comparable
  experience? library support for franchised
  courses in higher education. British Library
  Research and Innovation Report 33. Preston,
  CERLIM, University of Central Lancashire viii,
  233p.

12
Click here for sound!Solutions?

• We need to encourage effective note-taking
• We need to stimulate mnemonic techniques
• We need to promote review, repetition and
  reinforcement
• We need to enhance interaction
• We need to use problem-based learning scenarios

13
Click here for sound!Further Reading

• To receive a copy of the article on which this
  presentation is based send an email with the text
  GET FOLIO\half.pdf to jiscmail_at_jiscmail.ac.uk
  With no Subject line, no signature file
• Also see "Remember the Gin and Tonic!" Using
  Alcohol to Teach Boolean Searching
• http//www3.baylor.edu/LIRT/lirtnews/1995/jgin.htm
  l