Evidence-Informed Learning Design Book Summary - Evidence-Informed Learning Design Book explained in key points

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Evidence-Informed Learning Design summary

Name: Evidence-Informed Learning Design
Rating: 4.2 (125 reviews)
Author: Mirjam Neelen & Paul A. Kirschner

Mirjam Neelen Paul A. Kirschner

Creating Training to Improve Performance

4.2 (125 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

Evidence-Informed Learning Design by Mirjam Neelen and Paul A. Kirschner is a practical guidebook on how to use scientific evidence to design and implement effective learning experiences that enable learners to achieve their full potential.

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Talent Development New Work

Table of Contents

Evidence-Informed Learning Design
Summary of 5 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 5

What’s in it for me? Take your learning experience design skills to the next level.

We live in a world with seemingly endless learning possibilities. Just a few decades ago, it would be difficult to imagine having such a huge amount of often free learning resources just a click of the mouse away.

But while learning has become more easily accessible, that doesn’t always extend to the workplace. Executives around the world bemoan lack of essential skills among employees, this endangering growth.

That’s where learning professionals come in. It’s their job to support employees to do better at their job and prepare them for future challenges. But the learning profession is still plagued with outdated and unscientific teaching methods. This, of course, leads to ineffective learning experiences for employees, as well as wasted time and money.

How can we solve this problem? Luckily, that’s the topic of this blink. I’ll be taking you through some of the best methods available for designing effective learning experiences in the workplace. Whether it’s pedagogic principles or actionable suggestions, it’s all backed up by decades of research. And it’s sure to help you and your team become better learners.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

that the existence of “learning styles” is based on faulty logic;
why typing is the least effective form of note-taking; and
how to become an expert learner

Embracing an evidence-based approach and avoiding myths are key to designing learning experiences.

Before we dive into actionable techniques however, let’s begin with taking a look at how to judge sources when it comes to learning. After all, it’s likely this blink is not going to be the last material on learning experience design you’ll encounter. Okay. Let’s dig in.

Say you’re tasked with creating a new learning design experience for your team. The goal is to prepare them for a new project which involves a lot of new information. You start coming up with ideas, but eventually hit a roadblock – you need some inspiration. Googling yields countless ideas, and most seem like they could provide useful inspiration for you to continue.

But some sources are better than others. When picking out studies or articles on learning, you need to adopt a prejudiced approach. Because not all materials are created equally.

So, what should you do? It’s all about adopting an evidence-based approach when courting materials. The first part of doing this involves avoiding the huge amount of myths surrounding learning. And as we’ll see shortly, there are a number of long-held assumptions about learning that are demonstrably false.

Take the “learning styles” myth, for example. It’s been around for a long time and is still widely believed to be true, no matter what the science says. The myth is, of course, that different people learn in different ways – some prefer reading, and others prefer listening to podcasts or watching videos. In the context of learning experience design, this myth often leads educators to providing parallel materials for different groups. This leads to spiraling costs for such learning experiences.

The learning styles myth is a great example of something that feels intuitively right while being completely wrong. So, if you’re considering using something “intuitively” right similar to learning styles, it’s best to take a moment to go beyond your intuition – and analyze your thinking process. In the case of learning styles, you might realize that what people want isn’t always good for them. Sure, most of us want to eat sugary or fatty food, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us. It’s the same with learning styles. And multiple studies have shown that it either has no effect or even negative effects on learning outcomes.

Learning how to identify myths will put you on the right track to adopting an evidence-based approach for designing learning experiences. But it’s only one side of the coin. The other is being able to distinguish great learning materials from average ones.

Doing so doesn’t mean spending hours trawling through the sources of academic articles. It’s often the case that the language of what you’re reading will give you a pretty good idea. Let’s say you discover an article that claims to have discovered an effective new method to increase learning retention. The first thing you should do is check if it relies too much on vague or emotional language, both of which are red flags for potentially shoddy information. Also be wary if the author is excessively hyping up this new learning method before actually getting to explaining the method itself. The best resources rely on the power of their arguments without needing extra hype.

If the author’s language is sound and there’s no obvious hype, you can still do a bit of digging. For example, you can check the quality of the individual sources the article references. Are the sources published, preferably in peer-reviewed journals? Do the publishers of the journals have any obvious links to particular philosophies or products? These sorts of indicators will give you a solid idea whether the article is legit or not. If it passes these quick litmus tests, then the article’s findings are ready to be implemented into the next learning experience you’re designing.

Getting students to use the right tools is key for effective learning.

Alright. Now that you’re prepared to assess learning materials in the future, let’s get you hooked up with some of the most effective learning concepts around today. All these concepts belong to one of three groupings – tools, techniques, and ingredients. Just as master chefs use tools, techniques, and ingredients to whip up delicious food, learning professionals do the same when designing learning experiences. In doing so, we’re able to design learning experiences that are effective, efficient, and enjoyable.

Let’s start off by taking stock of the learning tools available to us. These can be anything that support the learning process, such as computers, books, or even this blink, in fact. One tool that I want to highlight, though, is the noble pen and paper for the purpose of note-taking. Taking notes is of course invaluable for effective learning, but many of us aren’t doing it as effectively as we could.

Applying effective learning techniques will help bring your learning experiences to the next level.

Once you’ve figured out what sorts of tools are most effective for your next learning experience, it’s time to take a look at what sort of techniques you can use. Techniques consist of methods that you as an educator use to facilitate the learning process, such as collaborative learning, direct instruction, or lectures.

Perhaps one of the most effective learning techniques is providing feedback to learners. In fact, countless studies have shown that feedback is a powerful intervention when it comes to learning. Not only can it have a positive effect on learning outcomes – it’s also been shown to increase motivation.

Choosing the right ingredients will get your students closer to learning success.

So, now that we’ve explored some of the best tools and techniques out there, let’s dive into the final component of designing effective learning experiences – picking the right ingredients. For many educators, this is often where we go wrong. It can be tricky to pick the best ingredients, or learning strategies, for the specific learning outcomes we want to achieve.

Psychologists and educators have been evaluating different learning strategies for over 100 years. And while many ineffective ones have been discarded, some remain with us today. Let’s look at three of them.

Fostering expert learners is the most important part of a learning professional’s job.

You now have an expanded arsenal of tools, techniques, and ingredients to implement into your learning design experiences. Let’s now look at the last building block needed to help you and your team with your learning goals. This is the cultivation of expert learners at your organization. The goal here is to create self-directed and self-regulated learners that are able to take control of their learning development outside of formal instruction.

The benefits of having a team of expert learners are many. For starters, their knowledge is more well-organized than novice learners, and they’re able to apply it with ease. They’re already aware of effective learning strategies like spaced learning, and they are highly motivated to always learn more. And of course, they’re proven to be more valuable to your company.

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What is Evidence-Informed Learning Design about?

Evidence-Informed Learning Design (2020) takes stock of where learning and development in the workplace is today. While many learning myths are still encountered in contemporary workplace learning, there’re effective ways for learning professionals to identify them – and stamp them out. Once this is done, there are a number of fantastic techniques learning professionals can utilize to help assist employee learning.

Evidence-Informed Learning Design Review

Evidence-Informed Learning Design (2021) is a must-read for anyone interested in designing effective learning experiences. Here's why this book stands out:

Packed with evidence-based strategies, it provides practical insights into designing learning experiences that are grounded in research and proven to be effective.
By bridging theory and practice, the book offers actionable guidance for educators and instructional designers, ensuring the implementation of evidence-informed practices.
With its engaging case studies and examples, the book brings the subject to life, making it an enjoyable read that sparks creativity and enhances learning design skills.

Who should read Evidence-Informed Learning Design?

learning professionals looking to up their game
employees looking to get ahead with their professional knowledge
students of any persuasion hoping to discover effective learning strategies

About the Author

Mirjam Neelen is the Head of Global Learning Design and Learning Sciences in Novartis. She’s worked in various learning design roles over the last 15 years, including stints at Accenture, Google, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Paul A. Kirschner is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the Open University of the Netherlands. He can often be found doing speaking engagements around the world, and his research has been widely published.

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