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Improve Learners’ Knowledge Retention with a Proper LMS

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Thought Industries
March 30, 2017
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Within an hour, workers forget 50% of what they learned without revisiting the material (science says so). In a day, 70% of information is forgotten. Then, 90% is forgotten within a month. Nonetheless, companies continue to pour a vast amount of resources into employee and customer training.
As a creator of online learning content, how do you make information stick? According to Brian Westfall, senior market researcher for Software Advice, technology may provide a solution; specifically, learning management systems (LMSs) that allow companies to maintain content and have a number of features to ensure that workers don’t forget what they’ve learned.


“Solid learning foundations should be the bedrock of your employee training,” says Westfall, “But learning management systems are certainly a useful aid to help important information stick in the minds of your employees for the long haul.”


In Westfall’s story posted on Software advice, he shares five ways LMSs can improve knowledge retention:

  1. Use course authoring tools to create more engaging content
  2. Utilize blended learning support to play to learners’ strengths
  3. Add social learning features to fuel ongoing course discussion
  4. Create follow-up assessments to keep training fresh
  5. Use learning analytics to shed light on areas of improvement

Course authoring tools for better engagement

In a study conducted by web conferencing service provider InterCall, one-third of participants say current training programs aren’t a productive use of time. To solve this problem, Westfall suggests selecting a platform with engaging course authoring tools. What is his choice platform? Our Thought Industries customer training platform.


“One major issue with employee training can be that course materials are just simply unmemorable,” says Westfall. “This can be because of a dull slideshow presentation or an extensive PDF an employee has to read. Tools that allow course authoring, like those provided by Thought Industries, can help administrators inject courses with various types of content to improve learning and long-term comprehension.”


Thought Industries co-founder and CEO Barry Kelly says that when you see what forms this training content often takes place, you understand why creative course authoring tools are so important. The Thought Industries platform allows course creators to pair content like images, videos and GIFs to plain text learning content.

Retaining information

“Another hurdle to retaining all of this information the simple fact that no two employees are alike,” explains Westfall. “LMSs offering blended learning support can mitigate the differences of learning styles by combining the best of instructor-led and self-paced pedagogies.”


But what about the time after the courses are completed? Westfall says, “Course discussion forums provided by social learning features can help workers retain information over time.” Course authoring tools within the Learning Business Platform™ are interactive and some are even game-like — improving knowledge retention. For example, in one course page type authors can turn a page of text into a series of flippable notecards. In another course page type called “highlight zone challenge,” course authors can set up questions that require users to click on the correct location of an image.


Want to learn more about how the Thought Industries customer training platform can help your learners learn? Request a demo.

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