Our Gamified Microlearning Platform — Explained

A funny thing happened on our way to modern eLearning.

Would it surprise you to learn that back in 1928, the first “teaching machine” was created in the United States? Perhaps not a surprise.

However, it perhaps would surprise you to learn that machine, as well as the ones that followed for several decades, were all designed to provide personalized and adaptive learning?

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If, by a miracle of mechanical ingenuity, a book could be so arranged that only to him who had done what was directed on page one would page two become visible, and so on, much that now requires personal instruction could be managed by print.

Edward L. Thorndike

(1912)

However, adaptive eLearning slowly fizzled out by the late '60s. eLearning’s current form originates from the late '90s when the US Federal Government started investing in a common eLearning standard - SCORM. Since then, we’ve essentially abandoned the concept of adaptive learning, in favor of standardization.

The good news is that this standardization allowed a rich ecosystem of Learning Management System (LMS) platforms and authoring tools to develop. The bad news is that, while the ecosystem has benefited, learners have suffered.

The Painful Truth About eLearning

Think about the last time you completed a traditional eLearning course. While some are really well designed, the majority are essentially PowerPoints. They consist of a graphic-heavy slideshow with a few interactivities followed by the ubiquitous 80%-pass quiz.

Did you love it? Probably not. Neither did your learners.

Given the option, your learners would skip the content and go straight to the quiz - in part to prove their knowledge, in part to skip the (usually) arduous “learning” part. (The content your organization likely agonized over, and invested heavily in the graphic design).

The worst part, though, is that there is essentially no knowledge retention mechanism. The only thing traditional eLearning provides for are periodic “refresher” courses which are either the same course a year later, or a smaller version of the same course. Either way, it's a giant pain for administrators.

Recall of the information is therefore poor. There are a ton of “studies” referenced in various eLearning articles about how quickly learners forget content. Personally, we think most of those stats are more opinion than fact, however, learners do forget. Especially when they don’t have existing knowledge to scaffold onto.

There is a better way.

Content Management - OttoLearn Microlearning

We’ve been involved with eLearning for over a decade, both as a technology provider of a successful traditional LMS platform, and also as content developers.

For years, we’ve felt that all LMS platforms were missing an essential ingredient — the ability to deliver continuous training to ensure that learners actually learn.

Enter OttoLearn® Gamified Microlearning™: small bites of information fed to users in regular intervals until they master it. We measure what they know and focus their daily activities on their areas of weakness until they’ve turned into strengths.

Learn more about OttoLearn, contact our training experts for your personalized, no-obligation demo.