Hi my name is Evan Campbell, I am a graduate of Wright State University with a Bachelors of Science in Organizational Leadership. After graduating I started a small Digital Marketing & Publishing company with a couple of my fraternity brothers. Since then I've had the pleasure of learning and utilizing multiple new technologies throughout the course of my job. This is what led me to pursue my Master's in Educational Technologies and subsequently the research covered in this workshop about effective learning.

Outside of the classroom you can find me with my friends watching movies, traveling, or listening to music. Let's learn like we were meant to! 

GUIDE: How to Use Retrieval Practice to Improve Learning 

How to Use Retrieval Practice to Improve Learning is authored by Pooja Agarwal, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel, and Kathleen McDermott. The guide covers how we currently use retrieval practice and what we can do to use it more effectively in our learning. The authors not only back up their findings with research, but they also provide ways to implement retrieval practice, possible challenges with retrieval practices, and frequently asked questions. 

http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/RetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf

GUIDE: Retrieval Practice and Transfer of Learning: Fostering Students' Application of Knowledge

Retrieval Practice and Transfer of Learning: Fostering Students' Application of Knowledge is written by Steven Pan and Pooja Agarwal. It's about making sure students are able to transfer their learning, or in other words apply what they've learned in a myriad of situations. This guide breaks down the multiple types of transfer, as well as the most effective and ineffective ways to implement it. 

http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/InterleavingGuide.pdf

VIDEO: Mark McDaniel: Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insights to Improve Teaching and Learning (YouTube Video = 1hr 5 min)

Making Learning Stick: Evidence and Insights to Improve Teaching and Learning is a 65 min. video presentation by Dr. Mark A. McDaniel at Franklin & Marshall College. In the video he covers research in cognition as it pertains to learning to help us understand why the ways we choose to learn our ineffective. He suggests that learners make their studying more elaborative to build the strongest connections to the material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japP8Cr0q6g

VIDEO: How People Learn, Dr. Roddy Roediger (YouTube Video = 24.49 min)

How People Learn is a 25 min. video presentation by Henry L. Roediger at Michigan State University from June 2014. In the presentation Dr. Roediger uses 130 years worth of Empirical research to explain why practices such as space retrieval, the testing effect, and making learning challenging are necessary for real long-term mastery of a subject. His Insight on how we learn give us ways to enhance our future learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tz8gVPHhFE

TEXTBOOK: Make it stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Make it stick: The Science of Successful Learning is written by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, & Mark McDaniel. This book covers many different studies that prove how we learn today is ineffective, and what we can do to create more meaningful connections to the materials that we study. The authors use real stories from around the world to support the research and material in the book.

Easy Learning is Ineffective

People often think that learning is best when it is easy,  however they couldn't be more wrong. Learning is most effective when it is effortful and requires more mental processing. This is the basis of all the techniques that have been scientifically proven to be more effective for learning. By creating desirable difficulties, connection to study material can be strengthened, which leads to more retention and application of what is learned (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniels, 2014). 

The Cramming Fallacy

One study method used by so many students is massed practice, or cramming as it is commonly referred to. Since it works in the short-term, it's often mistaken as effective, but research shows that the gained knowledge isn't retained in the long term. While cramming may be effective for getting a good grade, it does not lead to mastery of a subject or strong connection to the material. Unfortunately because it produces good grades in the short-term, many feel fluent even when they shouldn't since cramming is among the least productive study methods (Brown et al., 2014).

Why Reread?

Rereading is by far one of the most used tools for studying material, but it is also one of the most ineffective ways to gain mastery. Students think that rereading works because it triggers cues from their short-term memory, but strong connections to the material and actual retention come from the long term memory. Despite being amongst the least effective ways to learn, rereading is the number one study method used by over 80% of college students, which shows us how bad our judgment can be when evaluating our learning (Brown et al., 2014). 

The Poorest of Judgement 

People's poor judgement is probably what has allowed so many ineffective study strategies to persist despite the over 130 years of research proving their inefficiency. We all too often fall for the illusions of fluency induced by ineffective study habits, and rarely do we recognize it. As humans we are also prone to misleading ourselves by trying to explain the world and our place in it using our own cognitive biases and illusions. We could greatly enhance the learning process by becoming aware of these pitfalls and learning how to avoid them (Brown et al., 2014). 

Space Your Retrieval Practice

Students should be encouraged to practice spaced retrieval to improve their learning. Retrieval practice is a challenging form of learning, which means that it is much better for retaining knowledge long-term. By forcing ourselves to pull previously learned knowledge to the forefront, we create a struggle that strengthen those connections for future retrieval. Not only does retrieval practice help with memory, it helps make the knowledge more flexible and transferable (Agarwal, P.K., Roediger III, H.L., McDaniel, M.A., & McDermott, K.B.,2018). 

Interleaving Practice v. Massed Practice

A more powerful alternative to mass practice is interleaving practice. When you interleave the practice of two or more skills you obtain greater results overall as opposed to practicing them one at a time. This practice increases your ability to transfer your learning successfully between different situations  because it is stored in the a different part of the brain more associated with the higher-order motor skills in contrast to massed practice. Research even states that interleaving practice increases one's ability recognize context and discern between situations using the proper strategies to address multiple possibilities (Brown et al., 2014). 

Take Time to Reflect

When you combine retrieval practice with elaboration you get reflection, or taking new lessons, reviewing them afterwards, and asking yourself questions. By taking time to evaluate what went right, what went wrong, areas of improvement, and how you would act differently in the future you greatly increase connections to new material. Research shows this method to be more fruitful than spending hours taking notes or rewriting PowerPoint slides (Brown et al., 2014).