The Power of Seven

When I first started doing training, the company I worked for put us through a train-the-trainer session. One of the things from that session that has stuck with me for the last 20 years was the fact that it takes the average person seeing, hearing and doing something seven times for them to learn it.

Now, understanding averages as I do, I realized that for those, like me, who catch on after one or two times, there were those who took 12 or 13 times before they caught on. I always kid, when I have a student who apologizes for taking so long to catch onto something, that they are my balancer and together we average to 7. Without them, I'd skew the average.

This is one of the reasons that our instructional strategy works so well. By working through the various activities of the course you are increasing the number of times you are exposed to the content. You have a chance to improve how well you learn the materials with each exposure.

1. The first opportunity to learn is the demo. This shows you what can be done. It also gives you an idea of where the lesson is headed.
2. Next you read through the content in the book. If there are examples in the book work through those as well
3. Read through the online content and examples.
4. Spend some time going through the online resources.
5. Try it out on your own with the Practice.
6. Spend some time discussing the topic with your classmates and you have.
7. Apply what you have learned to your own project with the Assignment.

Still don't feel like you got it? Try these suggestions:

• Take a look at your classmates' projects in the Assignments
• Review more of the online resources
• Search for new resources.
• Ask your teacher for additional examples

If you still need more, go back through it all again!

Are you like me and catch on pretty quickly? Then use the learning opportunities to dig a little deeper into the subject.

• Investigate some of the areas of the topic that may not have been covered in the course content.
• Help your classmates that are your average balancers by posting examples you have created or found in your own research.
• Help your instructor answer questions from other students. They may encounter problems you had not.

Each exposure to the course content you have gives you a chance to learn something new! Take advantage of all these learning opportunities and you are sure to come away learning something new!

posted by Winona Winslow @ 6:55 AM