On, I hope you all are doing well. So today's conversation is on how to design for learning brain science, psychology and hacking human performance. I know a lot of these are buzzwords and I'm not one of those people.I mean, I had to create a title that was enticing enough for people to want to join, but I recognize that they are buzzwords. So I'll do my best to elucidate and kind of share um the real, the real uh uh practical parts of it too. So as an agenda, we're just going to talk about what uh what is learning design and why is it important? Just a very basic cog sign education one on one. I know people spend their lives working on trying to understand cognitive science. So I'll try to distill it in like a minute. Uh some brain hacks design trends of today and the future of teaching. So I wanted to share a little bit about me. Um And then I'd love to hear in the chat, where are you all from? Uh what's your background and what's what caused the interest in joining the session so that I could as I go along tailor it so that there's meaningfulness to you. Um So my name is Nusrat. I graduated from Princeton in 2017 and I majored in anthropology. Uh And then somehow I became a financial writer at Boyer Investment Management. Excuse me, I didn't have any finance background, but I think they wanted someone who could speak to an audience with a, in a more accessible way uh from there.

Uh because I was working with clients, I became more user focused. So I did a UX design program at NYU. Um While I was doing that, I interned at a UX research as a UX researcher at a ARVR um start up. And both of those ended up, we ended up leading me to a place called Case, a Fintech company specializing in alternative investments. And I was a learning designer there. I had no learning design background since then. Um until that moment. Uh But what I told them was that I had finance background. I had an interest in tech, I had UX design background. I had a, I had a love of people and a big curiosity for people. And so um it made sense for me to, for, for them to take me on. And I'm very grateful that they did while I was there. I was, I think the third person on the team and really worked hard to develop the uh the learning design program at Case. And uh I started getting very interested in the theory behind some principles and what goes into creating good elearning experiences and instructional design, which led me to doing my master's, which I'm currently doing it in cognitive science and education, which led me to do U where I currently am as a learning designer and I create content or I just started like a month ago.

But the goal is to create content in creativity and design thinking, Human centered design, uh designing a business strategy, all with the person, all with the people in mind and at the center um which is so all of this in combination has gotten me very interested and I would say, uh you know, at least five plus five plus years experience and just learning more about cognitive science, how to learn, not just what to learn and why it's so important to learn how to learn.

Um So that we can learn smarter, not just harder. Uh Yeah. So that's a little bit about me. I'd love to know a little bit more about you us, Jennifer from Victoria, Canada. Awesome. Uh oh Megan, you teach lawyers. So cool. The hate tech. Oh Interesting. OK. Betsy training and on boarding new hires. Oh, you say anthropology? Awesome. Melissa. Um oh OK. Cool. So you're excited to see how much improvement in the field of elearning. Aaron's a corporate trainer. Very cool. Yeah, I, we go into uh specifically for Megan your point. We're gonna go into how the world is becoming very tech focused. And so a lot of our learning is going to be in tech um or, or the platform will be in tech. So I think it's, this is, this is a, this is a place that is I I I'm always trying to see what the trends and patterns are and trying to stay go beyond it. Like not just play catch up but what, what are the trends of 2023 and beyond? And how do we um create uh elearning experiences that takes that into account? OK. So what is learning experience design? Um And then you know, why is this so important? So the way I define it, it's like the way or approach of creating learner centered experiences to achieve a certain outcome. So you have instructional design, which is very content focused, right? What is, what is the exact curriculum?

What are the um exact uh methods and practices that the learner will be learning? And then you have user experience design which focuses a lot on the user, hence the name, right? You're really focusing on the person, what they're going through. Um And from start to finish who they are, what are they, what context are they bringing and then learning experience design. The way I see it is a combination of everything. It's a combination of the content from instructional design, the human, from the user experience design and the experience in general. So when you're creating a good elearning experience, um you're, you have to um you have a couple of things in mind. You have the, the content that you're putting the person through and the experience that that person will be going through as they're going through that content. One thing that someone mentioned is like um is that user experience design, like you want a person when they're going through an experience, you don't want them to really think, right? You want them to have ease when they're going through the experience, whatever it may be an app, a system, a service and experience anything.

But then for a learning experience design, you do want them to think, but in the right way, you want them to be, you want to have some friction, you want them to be able to really um you know, really change as they're going through that whatever learning experience that they are.

That's why a lot of learning experience is heavily focused on the outcome. What are the goals that you want learner to go through? Um So then why is this so important today? Um So the reason why I got really interested in learning design is that and before even COVID, before this digital digitization of learning and before everything became hybrid and remote and virtual, the reason why I was so interested in it was that I would notice um you know, you spend a lot of time learning and digesting and a lot, there's a lot of informa information and there's a lot of knowledge, but where does wisdom come into play?

Right? Where does the discerning of what knowledge is necessary to keep and what knowledge may not, that is not necessary to keep coming, come into play. How come, you know, we're making tech so much smarter, but why are we not making people smarter? So as I was going into my UX design uh program, and I, you know, we're, we're thinking about people, we're thinking about all these, you know, experiences they're going through. And I, and I, you know, I've always cared deeply about equitable education and access. And so I was thinking, you know, we really need to focus on learning design and lo and behold COVID hit, it's still here and it's completely changed the game. A lot of things are hybrid. Now, a lot of our instruction and on boarding and hiring a lot of it and, and trying to get the onslaught of people coming into your company, get to get them all to understand the culture. It's all online now. Um you know, school has become focused on Google classroom class, Dojo. A lot of it is mobile, uh you need to be mobile friendly, right? And a lot of kids don't, didn't understand a lot of these things before, before COVID hit. And so it really unearthed a lot of um I would say systemic inefficiencies gaps and inequalities that were uh embedded in, like in the way education is disseminated and in the way learning is understood so much of it is a quick fix, right?

Um Traditional learning before, you know, I, you will learn all of us history in a week. Um, and then world history less than that. Right. And then you're expected to take a test and examine. That's, that's not how it's, uh that is not how kids learn these days anymore. And it takes me to my last two points competition for attention and more access to information nowadays because of the advent of technology, we have access to so much and, and very quickly, that's something new, right? But what does that actually do to our brains, the more cognitive we have a cognitive capacity, right? And the more that there are things trying to get your attention, more dopamine uh fixes and the way a lot of social media is built is so that you want like a reward system and it is conditioning our brain to want certain things or to gravitate towards uh a way of learning and thinking.

And one thing that we could do is try to be just, you know, up to par on it. But I'm saying, how do, how do we go beyond, right? How do we take into account what is not just happening today but what will be happening for the next few years? Yeah, Betsy, it's difficult for new hires to have four days of virtual training with videos. It doesn't work when actually I just heard of someone who, um, did a training earlier, earlier on months later, they did something that was against what the training had said and then they were like, put through compliance and all these, like, you know, slap on the wrist and the person was telling me, like, how do they expect me to really understand what I was supposed to do if I only had this 1 60 minute video, right?

When I joined the company, right? It's, it's just, it's just, it doesn't make sense and it's not in line with what a person is capable of, it's in line with what a company may want, right? Very quick stuff, right? And you don't want to spend a lot of money on teaching. But then, then a lot of it's like um retroactive fixing, which actually ends up costing more money, which, you know, it's just so it's so, it's so funny to me why that happens. Um So a little bit back of cogs, I, 11, since we're talking about, you know, how it doesn't make sense the way learning is happening today and why a lot of times learning designers or uh if you're, if you're in a company right now and you have some say in how learning is, uh you know, experience in that company, I would say a lot of it's like you're an advocate, you're an advocate for learning design and a lot of it will come down to you sitting um in front of whoever needs to be sold to and showing them.

This is how a human brain works. This is why, what we teach them and how we teach them is not working. Right. So, you know, I know we're, I can't believe we're running short on time. I really want to hear from you all and some questions, but some things in cognitive science little and often the best way to learn is if you learn a little bit and often. So if you have a if you have a training spacing it out space repetition, right? It's just natural. Our brain is not able to take an eight hour lesson in a week, right? It's, it's, it's built in within us to have some sort of um rhythm to that, to, to understanding and not just understanding, but then implementing later, right? Another concept principle recognition and recall a lot of times how corporate training works is that you get a paragraph or a very dry video followed by a bunch of questions and then another paragraph or a P PDF of like three pages. And another question that's not actually how you learn, you know, a lot of learning there, there's a science of it, right? And one of them is that when you give someone AAA concept or something to learn about what do they already know about it. Right. And then when they are tested in it again, uh instead of giving, instead of just giving them, you're basically handing them the answers. If you just give them the reference of the, you know, the PDF and then the questions, how will you give them the questions first? Right.

Next time when, when they go into the system again, that way they're actually trying to recall and that friction and that like resistance that comes from like, hm I learned this a while back but like, I'm not remembering that moment that they're going through actually will help them remember in the long run.

Instead, I've noticed a lot of corporate training. What they do is maybe on Monday they'll teach you something. And let's say on Wednesday, they do a review that never happens. I don't know, I've never heard of a review, but let's say it does when they do the review, they'll give the ref like all the reference and the content followed by the question. But then you know that that's not helpful. Ideally, you give them the questions first. That's how they, you know, the idea of recall. We talked about cognitive capacity. There's only so much that a person can um can know, right. And so trying to account for cognitive overload, a lot of companies. And uh right now what they're trying to do is like they add um videos and graphics and infographics and a live session in this and, and on the screen there's videos, there's a video and words and audio going on and a bunch of pictures and you're looking at it and naturally you're not gonna be able to regurgitate or understand or apply that information because there is a cognitive overload, right?

Um And then transfer of knowledge, the way we learn best is when we apply it and also share it with others in our companies. Do we have a space for them to collaborate, for them to apply what we learned? How do we do? We just wait for a natural occurrence and then see if see it happen. No, how do we create um simulations, live simulations or live scenario based critical, like, you know, those kind of situations in which you can actually apply what you're learning. Um I'm just gonna check the chat very quickly. You guys are so cool. You all are so cool. I love it. Uh some brain hacks. So and throughout my research and call in my master's program right now, how do we create um you know, some, some things to also know on how to hack our brain for more productivity, for more um more to to equip it to create it, to make it a state in which when you are learning, you actually are able to retain it, right?

And these are things that are good to know of when you are becoming an advocate for learning design at your company. But also for yourself as if you are in the learning space, how do we ourselves, you know, talk the walk, right? Or walk the talk. I either way, both of them. Um So, you know, how do we enter a flow state? So a lot of cognitive science principle also shows that in a flow state is when you're, when you're so enraptured by what you're doing, time stops, right? How do we get to that state? I know some people ski, some people paint, you're not thinking in that moment, you know, all conscious judgment is put to a halt and you're in the state of just productivity, right? And a lot of it comes from being creative, which is actually the last point, something where you aren't thinking, how do we create atmospheres or activities in our own workplace in our own schools in which we create these atmospheres in which the our Children, our colleagues, our coworkers are able to go into this flow estate, right?

And maybe now it could be a little better because we are more remote, right? So oftentimes people will just come behind you at a desk when you're working. Now, they can't do that as much. Um you know, shallow learning versus deep learning, uh shallow learning, it sounds exactly what what it reads like. Shallow learning is a lot like service learning and deep learning is when you actually go into it and you learn and get concrete examples. That's when you actually tap the part of your brain where you are now critically thinking. Right. And, um, you know, getting immediate feedback. So when you're working on anything, getting immediate feedback, as opposed to waiting, it'll actually just reinforce that part of your brain that wants to fix things right. As opposed to waiting on something and taking a long time on it before getting feedback and then giving it some context whenever you create mental connection between what you're learning. Um It, it keeps it embeds that in your brain. Mm I know that time is running out. Uh So design trends. Um So what's happening today? What's happening tomorrow? Gamification? And I don't want to think about Gamification as like just a nice to have like a lot of people are looking at it in a very gimmicky way and it doesn't actually solve anything.

It just makes it more flashy. How do we apply Gamification in a more genuine and well intentioned way, right? We know that a lot of times humans want a reward system, they want incentives, they want points. How do we make it actually make sense with our program? Right? When we're creating learning experience, we can't just put random things in it. How do we actually make it make sense? Um Digitization as we see, a lot of things are coming online. How do we? And so now you're, you're, you're seeing the experience of a person with content but also their experience online. Um you know, the the design trends of uh making things more personalized and on demand. A lot of people want on demand learning. So when they actually come up, when the, when the issue arises, that's when they go in and they're able to go take a course, right? Trying to convince lawyers as one of the participants said, how to get interested into tech and how to take these courses when traditionally may, they may have not a lot of times it actually, you know, a telling them like this is on demand learning, this is relevant learning, this is learned that actually will help you in your job.

A lot of it is like you become like a salesperson when you're doing when you become a learning designer. Um how do we convince people who this is all very new to them? Right? And so to show them like this is actually going to put you two steps ahead of everyone else. And uh finally, what now? So I just want to have a takeaway, the biggest takeaway, the learner, the outcome and the experience focusing on these three groups. Um and ensuring that there's a synergy between all three. So a lot of thought going to who is the person I'm designing for, what it is that I want them to get out of learning the learner, right? What are their needs, what are their wants, what are their pain points and in creating an experience that actually makes them feel good, makes them feel heard, right? Um I'll stop there in case there is any questions that I can answer in the last two minutes. Yes, Mary, not, you know, build holistically building Gamification, but not encouraging addiction, video learning on kids is actually very good. Um A lot of times as, as long as like, yes, listening to the kids, um I would say whoever you're creating for making sure that, you know, you really understand what it is that they want, you know, who designed for kids very different from designing for adults, right?

I would say for more information um where I work ID ou um and ID O in general, uh I hope this is not like weird branding, but uh they focus a lot on the future of education, future of learning, future of elearning. Uh There's a lot of thought pieces and a lot of care into that kind of work. So um a lot of their thought pieces in their blogs are exceptional learning. Uh you know, even on going on youtube and learning more about cognitive science in general, just the theory um can help so much when you're creating any, any type of learning experience. Um And even say if you can take a course on UX design, um I think that the the learning design designer of today um is someone who is well versed in all those kind of facets. So learning about the, the user as much as possible and learning about the theory so that when you, so you can, when you make something, it's very sincere. Yes. You know, it, and it is also like a challenge, right? To create a learning experience that accounts for many different contexts.

Like when you're creating an experience, there's, there's many people and they come from all different backgrounds, uh oftentimes even, um even starting off with that kind of disclaimer, you know, recognizing that a human is built by their backgrounds, by their um their life experiences.

So, but, but also recognizing that there are some, there are some principles of the brain and some principles of cognitive science that are relatively unchangeable. So going, you know, deeper into that, I think can create more learning experiences that could be uh accepted and, you know, loved by all people, regardless of, regardless of like where they come from. Yes. Leaning into the research, the more research that is put into what you create, you know, it just makes people have more trust in you, right? And trust in whatever you're building. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. I know my time is up, it's been an absolute joy. Um And I love just being around more people in the learning space and more people who really care about creating this uh creating this kind of stuff. So wish you the absolute best. Um I am on linkedin. I'm Nusrat Ahmed. Thank you all so much, take care. Enjoy the rest of the conference.