L.E.A.R.N.
HACK YOUR STUDENT'S MEMORY
Last month, we discussed how eight to ten minutes is ideal for your class videos. This month, we are talking about how to structure those crucial minutes. Before we get into that, let’s nerd out for a few seconds on working memory.
Working Memory
Think of working memory as a mental workspace where we hold and use the info we need for tasks like learning, reasoning, and understanding. Sound familiar? When you’re teaching, the goal of your class is for your students to learn, reason, and understand your content. So, when they are learning, your student is using working memory. This is different from long-term memory, which stores information for the long haul. Because of this, working memory can only hold a few items for a short period. This limited capacity affects how we multitask, solve problems, and learn.
4 ± 2
If you remember nothing else, remember this: most people can only hold four plus or minus two ideas in their mind at any one time. This number was determined in psychology studies about working memory. This concept was first introduced by psychologist George A. Miller in 1956. Miller found that the average person can keep about seven things in their mind, give or take two. However, recent studies suggest this number is closer to four items.
How do you apply this to your classes? When you plan your videos, ensure you only introduce two to six ideas in a single video. However, if one of your ideas is detailed with multiple steps, that one idea will take up more working memory and should probably have a dedicated video.
For example, if I’m going to teach you how to take a simple photo with an iPhone. I have two main ideas: open the app and take the photo. Neither of these ideas is particularly detailed or complex, so I could create one lesson on taking a photo with the iPhone. There’s no need to break them into discrete video lessons.
Now, if I want to teach you how to use Procreate, I have at least eight main ideas:
- Settings
- Interface
- Canvas
- Brushes
- Palettes
- Gestures
- Painting
- Exporting/Sharing
All of these topics can be broken down even further. For example, Brushes can be divided into five subtopics: importing, selecting, settings, opacity, and saving. If you are going to teach someone how to use Procreate, the best practice here would be to create a solo lesson on Brushes that is eight to ten minutes long and group the five subtopics together. The same is true for all the other main ideas.
Understanding how all of your primary and sub-ideas fit together can get overwhelming. A technique called Windowpaning can help you plan your lessons to maximize your students’ working memory.
Windowpaning
Working memory capacity varies from person to person and can be influenced by age, intelligence, and stress. Working within the limits of working memory is critical to optimizing your classes for online learning. Separating information into smaller, manageable parts helps students learn. The Windowpane concept is simple. Draw a square and divide it into six parts. That’s your window with six panes. Each pane will hold an idea you intend to teach. For complex ideas, draw another window and break that idea down further.
By leveraging the principles of working memory, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your class videos. Careful planning and structuring of your content is crucial to ensuring your students absorb it. When preparing your lessons, aim to introduce two to six main ideas within your eight- to ten-minute videos. Remember to break down complex ideas into smaller, manageable parts using techniques like Windowpaning. This approach ensures your students are not overwhelmed and can absorb and retain the information more effectively. You can create a more engaging and productive learning experience by aligning your teaching methods with cognitive learning principles.
TAKE ACTION: Use the list you created last month of your lesson videos and their lengths. Now, use the windowpane technique to map the ideas being covered. I’ve created a template you can use to help get you started.
