Enhancing workplace digital learning by use of the science of learning
Name
journal.pone.0206250.pdf
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541.9 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
12542fa21b380a3dc3086c589ab1cf46
Author(s)
Okano, Kana
Kaczmarzyk, Jakub
Gabrieli, John D. E.
Date Issued
October 2018
Journal
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
Okano, Kana, Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk, and John D. E. Gabrieli. “Enhancing Workplace Digital Learning by Use of the Science of Learning.” Edited by Etsuro Ito. PLOS ONE 13, no. 10 (October 24, 2018): e0206250.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Digital learning is becoming the most commonly used portal for workplace learning, but its effectiveness is not clearly understood. We studied 99 employees on-site in a large company as they watched an already used and required training video. Employees were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) a baseline condition of watching the video as in current practice; (2) a spontaneous discussion condition in which participants discussed the video with colleagues immediately after the video without any guidelines; (3) a structured discussion condition in which participants discussed the video with colleagues immediately after the video with an instructor guiding discussion topics; and (4) a testing condition in which test questions were interpolated throughout the video. Memory for the content of the video was measured on a recognition memory test completed 20-35 hours after watching the video. Employees who were in the interpolated-testing or structured discussion conditions had significantly superior memory for the video content (26% and 25% better respectively) relative to typical video viewing; spontaneous discussion did not enhance memory for content. These findings demonstrate that interpolated testing and structured discussion enhance information retention in the workplace and point to how learning science may accelerate workplace learning more generally.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clinical Research Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of Digital Learning
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206250
