Forming Strong Habits to Support Scheduled Interactions
Time to read: 5 minutes
Honey mustard, or what my kids call “fancy ketchup,” makes me smile every time I see it in the grocery store. Why? Because that random item is tied to a funny mealtime experience when one of the kids asked me to pass the “fancy ketchup” — aka the honey mustard — and that phrase is cemented in my brain as being comical.
How about you?
Have you ever thought about a joke or a chance interaction that applied to a real-life scenario and found yourself smiling, creating a mental meme, or recalling something hilarious you’ve experienced firsthand? Those are sticky experiences!
Many instructors cannot afford to reteach every class concept more than once, so we must make learning stick.
What does sticky learning mean?
Sticky learning relies on robust communication strategies and refers to creating memorable learning experiences that students recall even after class is dismissed. Creating learning that sticks means activating the brain for long-term memory and retention. Regular, substantive, and scheduled interactions help make this possible.
Atributes of Sticky learners
Remember: Sticky learning has a lasting impact when students remember what they’ve learned.
Recognize: Sticky learning ties course materials to learning outcomes and goals and helps students recognize the value of the learning experience.
Practice: Sticky learning includes applying knowledge, skills, and abilities through assignments, authentic assessments, and class activities.
Below are some suggestions for routine interactions geared toward developing sticky learning experiences:
Address motivation.
Enthusiasm spreads quickly in any course. Students become more enthusiastic and motivated to learn when I generate buzz about an upcoming topic, share a video explaining why this material will be helpful, or post testimonials from students who took this course last term.
I make an effort to develop this kind of content at the beginning of each new unit and explicitly point out where course concepts tie to learning goals and outcomes for the course.
Repeat after me: We learn best by doing.
Engagement-boosting activities abound in sticky learning. The scheduled interactions that support learning can include practice scenarios and case study discussions, open office hour Q&A sessions, timely feedback on assignments and homework with actionable follow-up items, and even in-line video quizzing.
Chunk the material.
Microlearning is an effective sticky learning delivery method because the information is broken up, given time to sink in, and reinforced in several ways.
Throughout the semester, I deliberately make quick explainer videos, build my modules around a central theme that follows a content pattern, and provide supplemental materials for when my class gets to that notoriously difficult unit — you know the one, you have one too!
Remind them, then remind them again.
The learning process should continue even after the lecture or class has ended. I'm aware that, like me, students forget a lot of what they read or hear. So to help students remember, I use short, simple cognitive ‘nudges’ to strengthen new connections to learning.
These interactions, such as weekly emails, reminders, and announcements, can be set to automatically send on specific days and times in the LMS.
Leverage social learning.
I've discovered that students enjoy learning from one another; everything from study "hacks" to community forums can help strengthen and support social learning.
The discussion board is an excellent place to start, but I’ve found that when creating group projects or teach-back activities, this encourages the shared lived experiences of my students, and the learning is much richer!
Test-prep flashcards, gamified leaderboards, and teach-back activities are my most popular social engagement activities every semester.
Many of these sticky learning strategies rely on communication strategies that are entirely in your control to create and disseminate. As educators, our communication habits become our communication patterns, and those patterns should be scheduled, routine, and engaging. After all, it’s what makes learning stick!
To help you stay on track with routine communication that leads to sticky learning, we’re sharing our scheduled interaction habit tracker. This tracker provides direct evidence of scheduled interactions and signals that you are delivering a highly engaging course and learning environment.
We are firm believers that communication tracking is powerful.
It serves as a reminder of the scheduled interactions expected in an online course.
It is motivating to see how your habit is becoming a routine. Most semesters last between 8 and 16 weeks, so you have already exceeded the typical 60-day threshold for a habit to turn into a routine.
It’s fulfilling to document your success. This achievement can provide evidence of instructor presence in your online class during course observations and/or be used to establish goals for your performance evaluation
While reaching a communication goal is extremely rewarding, so is taking consistent steps toward it. Whatever communication habits you're trying to track, we are confident that you can succeed. Before you know it, you’ll have created ‘fancy ketchup’ — errr, cemented long-term habits of your own!
Wait, there’s more!
Download our FREE Habit Tracker — a flexible and powerful resource to help form strong habits and support scheduled interactions with your students.
