Updated by: Tadhg Carey, CEO Thru-u.com
October 2008
Accelerated Learning Online
Interactive Visualization: Why we Learn better by ‘Seeing, Hearing & Doing’ and what it will achieve?
We achieve better learning outcomes using visualization and Interactive Simulators for Online Training: Learning by ‘Seeing, Hearing & Doing’.
Visualization using dynamic 3-D animations and Interactive Simulators to practice skills is the secret to enhanced and accelerated learning for Engineers, Technicians and Operators. Better training outcomes are achieved in less training time and at a lower cost by using interactive audio visual training. This will result in increased bottom line due to increased productivity, reduced quality failures and reduced safety incidents.
Why is it the case that visualization and interactive simulators enhance and accelerate learning? To answer this we need to look at how we learn. Consider this; human beings acquire more new knowledge and skills in the first four years of life than we do during the rest of our lives. What mechanism are we using to learn so prolifically at this early stage?
As children our brains are programmed to adapt quickly to our surroundings. This is primarily to help us acquire the knowledge and skills needed to keep us safe and help us function in our environment. We learn to walk. We learn language and how to dress and feed ourselves. We learn how to perform a multitude of complex tasks which, as adults, we take for granted. We learn what is safe and what presents a danger to us. How is this accomplished? As infants and toddlers are we given extensive training manuals? Do we read about it on the internet? No. The fact is we learn more new skills in this period of our lives then we do after we have learnt to read.
What prolific learning platform are we using if we are not learning these skills by reading? During this early period we are learning and being systematically trained by ‘Seeing, Hearing & Doing’. From our earliest childhood we are mentored by those closest to us to learn from what we see and hear around us. Our mentors continually quiz us during this mentoring to ensure that we understand. Then, when our mentors are satisfied that we fully understand whatever task or skill they are currently mentoring us in, we are encouraged to practice the new skills in controlled conditions under their supervision.
This training method is quick and successful because it encompasses the complete learning cycle:
First, knowledge acquisition: the learner is given the information they need to learn audiovisually (by ‘Seeing & Hearing’).
Second, competence testing.: the learner undergoes evaluations to check that they have sufficient command of the subject matter.
Third, practice: the new skills are practiced in a safe, controlled environment.
Pilots are an example of a profession that avails of this prolific learning mechanism of ‘seeing, hearing and doing’. Trainee pilots are first taught the theory of aviation audiovisually by instructors. Then their knowledge of the subject matter is checked using evaluations. Finally, when they are deemed to have sufficient knowledge of the subject matter, they are permitted to practice their flying skills in a safe, cost effective environment using interactive simulators.
There are three phases of learning that complete the learning cycle. To contend that engaging in the first two phases (Knowledge Acquisition and Evaluation) completes learning is fallacious. What do we establish about a learner when they complete a chapter of training content and then take an evaluation? From the learner’s score on the evaluation we establish that immediately after studying the course content the learner had a measured level of knowledge of that course content (usually measured as a percentage). The first two phases of learning exercise the learner’s understanding of the content and their short term memory retention of that content. However, an evaluation does not measure the learners ability to perform tasks related to the application of that course content and it does not measure their longer term memory retention of the content.
For example, if the learner completes their course content and the evaluation, and returns to their workplace without using and applying the knowledge and skills from that course are they trained adequately to apply the skill or knowledge competently? Will they retain the same level of understanding and knowledge of the subject matter over time? The reality is that if the learner re-sits the evaluation two weeks later their performance on the evaluation will be considerably diminished from when they first sat the evaluation.
This is why the third and final phase of the learning cycle (Practice) is essential to embedding the knowledge and skill into long term memory. What ‘Practice’ does is it forces us to manipulate the information we have just learned and put it into context in order to make decisions and/or take action. It is the contextualization of the information and the need to manipulate the knowledge in order to make decisions or to take appropriate action that embeds the understanding in long term memory.
When we look closely at the notable success of the techniques used to learn critical skills such as flying an aeroplane or a helicopter and it is clearly an implementation of three phase learning cycle we used at the height of our learning in early childhood. The prodigious success of this methodology can be measured by our retention of skills we learned long ago and which we have retained over many decades. The learning cycle has embedded these skills in our long term memory. Huge banks of knowledge and skills that have become literally ‘like riding a bike’ – once learned, never forgotten (because we were shown, we were quizzed and then we practised).
So, successful learning is an extension of the learning cycle applied from our earliest learning experiences. This explains how and why a particular learning platform or package is successful or not - depending on whether all three phases of the learning cycle are applied or not. Even when the three phases are employed there still remains one further question; is the manner in which the information is being imparted to us efficient, or is there a quicker way to transfer information from one person (mentor) to another (learner). Given traditional learning methods this necessitates the question, is reading central to learning? Clearly not, since we accumulate such a vast range of knowledge and skills in the period of our lives before we are able to read.
This in turn begs a further question; is reading the most efficient means of transferring information? To understand how efficient written language is as a communication platform we need to look at how the brain absorbs information and processes it into the understanding required to stimulate a reaction, a response or a course of action.
Our brain receives information through our senses. Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Usually the first senses to start absorbing new information are usually sight and hearing. We see objects, scenery, or tasks being performed and we hear the associated sounds, which in turn help put what we see in context. Then smell, taste and touch may come in to play. Looking at the absorption of information by our brain through sight and sound, how does our brain interpret what it sees or hears (whether it is a visual scene or hearing language). If you tell me that you are looking at a blue car, how does that information register as understanding in my brain? Does my brain visualize the letters ‘b-l-u-e c-a-r’ or does the image of a blue car I have seen in a photograph or on the street or on the TV flash through my brain? If you tell me that you are looking at a snow capped mountain, does my brain visualise the letters ‘s-n-o-w c-a-p-p-e-d m-o-u-n-t-a-i-n’ or does the visual image of a snow capped mountain I have seen on TV or in a picture or on vacation flash through my brain?
The reality is that when we read text, our brain takes that text and searches for the visual images we associate with that text. For example, when we learn to read we are given pictures of objects (apple, ball, car, house etc.). We are then given the letters that make up the word that represents that object and we create an association between the picture of the object and the arrangement of letters that represent that word. When we are reading text we are reversing this process by reading the word and then searching for the image we associate with this arrangement of text.
When our brain finds the associated image it converts the text into understanding – through visualization. This is why we can learn so prolifically before we learn to read. We are absorbing information by registering the actual visual image of the object we are being taught about rather than deciphering a collection of symbols (text) which we have come to accept represents that image. While written language has been and remains a very valuable means of exchanging and transmitting information over distances of time and/or space, it is an interpretive platform and so by its very nature our brain takes longer to get to the point where it registers understanding then it would if we are presented with the actual visual image of the object or concept. The time difference may only be milliseconds, but if we accumulate those milliseconds over the length of a full chapter of learning content it is clear that the learning timeline is considerably lengthened if the information is presented in text rather than audiovisually.
Add to this one further issue; that language is interpretive. This imposes an additional limitation when learning is delivered through the medium of written language. The interpretive nature of language means that the understanding the learner reaches when reading a text is dependent on their interpretation of the words used in conveying the information, which is in turn dependent on their previous experience. For example if I say, ‘A red car drove down the street’ it is obvious that we will all visualize this scene slightly differently. Some will visualize a red pickup truck driving down a wide street in a rural environment. Others will visualize a luxurious red car travelling along a busy New York street. Some may visualize a red sports car driving along a street in Italy. However if I presented the information audiovisually with a video clip of that scene everyone’s understanding of what kind of street and what kind of car, and what speed it was travelling at will be much more consistent.
Therefore, presenting information audiovisually not only accelerates the speed at which our brain can absorb information, it also reduces the latitude for interpretation and therefore removes much of the ambiguity with regard to the intended meaning. Imagination and interpretation are wonderful gifts which permit us to stretch as human beings. They bring tremendous pleasure through creative literature. However, in the area of learning, where we are charged with accumulating and mastering skills that are essential to safety or that are necessary to perform tasks more proficiently and efficiently, latitude in the area of interpretation of a message can be a considerable disadvantage. Visualization not only transfers the information more quickly, it transfers information less ambiguously.
Since the internet is an audiovisual medium, with video, sound and the ability to interact in real time, we should be taking full advantage of the our most prolific learning platform of ‘seeing, hearing and doing’ to accelerate learning, increase learning outcomes and reduce costs. The internet allows us to deliver the full learning cycle, online 24/7 and it is incumbent on learning companies and learning institutes to remove the impediment of learning by reading and now deliver real learning results worldwide – for all levels of learners and employees, from management, to engineer, to technician and operator.
This is why Thru-U.com is delivering revolutionary learning online by ‘seeing, hearing and doing’ based on 20 years experience successfully applying the three phase learning cycle using the platform of ‘Seeing, Hearing and Doing’ in Instructor Lead Training. In 1988 our associate company, Carey International, started using Interactive Simulators in instructor lead ‘fast-track’ training for engineers and technicians in the International Petroleum industry. At our clients’ request, we further adopted the use of simulators for fast-track training of Electricians, Mechanics and Instrument technicians.
Following on 15 years success in training Engineers, Technicians and Managers (including the first Western Petroleum Engineering Training Programme for the former Soviet Union – for which we scored a Triple ‘A’ report from the European Commission) our company thru-u.com applied the same philosophy of ‘Seeing, Hearing & Doing’ when converting our Engineering, Safety and Technical training programmes into online modules.
We have patented our dynamic audiovisual, interactive training technology.
Thru-u.com delivers our courses online implementing the three phase learning cycle. How do we do this?
First, our course content is delivered audiovisually using an onscreen mentor and 3-D graphics and animations.
Second, the learner’s competence is tested with online evaluations; providing a record of learner’s performance.
Third, each course has an online interactive Simulator, like a computer game, where the learner can practice their new skills. This allows them practice, make mistakes, learn from them and continue to perfect their skills in the safe, cost effective environment of a Simulator.
Vermont Technical College has certified all of our safety Modules and so all courses automatically carry United States standards - a major advantage for the Petroleum and Manufacturing industries.
We are converting Vermont Technical College’s Electrical and Plumbing Apprenticeship programmes into online courses using our audiovisual animations and Interactive Simulators. This is an educational revolution, where anyone anywhere in the world will be able to take accredited apprenticeship programmes - providing true equality of education and opportunity to everyone everywhere in the world.
This is only the beginning, in addition to our Safety, Petroleum, Electrical and Mechanical training, we will continue to add accredited apprenticeships to our online portfolio.
This is real interactive safety, engineering and vocational training, available worldwide online 24/7.
