How to leverage personalisation to improve learning outcomes

© 2015 Ness SES. All Rights Reserved

How to leverage personalisation to improve learning outcomes

Krishan Damani – March 2016

© 2015 Ness SES

Intro to Personalisation

Personalisation through immersive learning

Personalisation through data

Challenges


Tailoring a digital experience based on what is known about you

What is Personalisation?


Consumers demand it, Businesses should offer it – We are more curious, connected, tech savvy, directed and want “by me, for me” content. They need to be engaged to satisfy their expectations

Social – immersive and tailored experiences appear on social networks, where trust is implicit.

Pulling, not pushing content - Don’t anticipate needs, give control to make learning autonomous instead of prescriptive.

What does the market say personalisation is?


“Billions of dollars are spent on training and development in the US every year, only to have 80% of it forgotten in just 30 days. We have wasted a fortune by spoon-feeding ‘one size fits all’ to passive participants”

- Ex-BBC HR Director Lucy Adams on how this is no longer a one size fits all world

What if we ignore personalisation?





Challenges


“The future of technology driven learning is immersive… I am ’in’ the learning experience and I am practicing doing things that I need to do better. I am making decisions.’

- Koreen Olbrish Pagano – Immersive Learning

Immersive Learning


Key Element 1 - Storytelling

Benefits

- It’s memorable: It’s easy to understand because the structure of narrative is how our brains work.

- Powerful: Has the power to educate, persuade, motivate and engage

- Oldest form of learning: Telling stories has always been a common way of communicating information.

Digital Storytelling provides a richer experience


Benefits

- Increased control: You make the decisions

- Immediate Feedback: You see the impact of those decisions on average every 5-7 seconds (compared to 5-10 minutes on an e-learning course)

- Higher Engagement: It’s fun

Key Element 2 - Gaming

Duolingo uses game basedlearning to increase engagement


Storytelling: Putting the learner at the heart of the story and personalising their story, leads to increased empathy and engagement.

Gaming: Giving the learner goals and allowing them to fail regularly and safely promotes engagement and rapid learning.

Storytelling & Gaming are a powerful combination

Virtual Reality effectively combines storytelling & gaming


Immersive Learning Narrative Approaches…just a few

String of Pearls Narratives Branched Narratives





Challenges


- User Research: Understand user goals , behaviours, needs and pain points to define the problem

- Leverage common traits: E.g We know learners now have a lack of time, get bored easily, care less about knowing and more on 'finding.’

- Diagnose the situation : When building a solution recognize what users know by accessing prior knowledge and gauge level of personal interest so that they can find what they don’t know.

Step 1 – Understand the user to give structure


- Bitesized: Small chunks of engaging & continuous content will allow the learner to fulfil their goal.

- User Generated Content: Allowing users to create content is a quick way to scale knowledge transfer.

- Give the Right Feedback: Studies have shown that recognition rather than reward is the key to engagement.

Step 2 – Deliver smart content and connect it to learners at the right place, time, device at the point of need.


- Big Data: Using algorithms to tailor experiences in real time will increase retention.

- User Insights: Adapt experiences based on known behaviours and known heuristics. (e.g People are more likely to trust content/products from other people rather than companies )

Step 3 – Use data driven insights to improve and adapt learning experiences


Example 1: Elevate – In depth diagnostics, bite sized content and immediate feedback.


Example 2: Spotify – Highly personalised playlists using big data and a human touch





Challenges


- Algorithms don’t always get it right – Amazon doesn’t realise one off purchases. Tripadvisorbombards you with hotel recommendations

- Social: People get a narrow view of their world by just looking at their own feed

- Resource Intensive: To deliver a truly personalisedexperience, is extremely hard because users habits and needs change. It requires a huge amount of resources and even then it can be difficult.

Challenges with Personalisation

Education

How to leverage personalisation to improve learning outcomes