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What New Hire Training Can Learn from Sesame Street

13 August 2015
What New Hire Training Can Learn from Sesame Street by 糖心传媒 We all remember watching Sesame Street, Oscar, Big Bird and Bert & Ernie when we were young. Personally I was hooked from an early age and, I don鈥檛 mind saying the Street taught me how to count and say the alphabet. The only real downside was that Count Dracula, or any other muppets, weren鈥檛 there when I counted at school, which made me less attentive as a young student. According to Malcolm Gladwell鈥檚 book Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, when children observing Sesame Street were examined, it was established that they became distracted when they got confused, not when they were bored, this is why the show鈥檚 producers created Big Bird and Oscar, they were used to ensure children didn鈥檛 get confused during street scenes and therefore distracted. A similar situation can happen when training in a classroom environment, let鈥檚 take a look at our guide to why online new hire training works.

The Learners Actually Learn

The example of Sesame Street is a great one, as it shows precisely how you can hook in your learners. There is a concern that in a classroom environment your learners could get confused, and quickly begin to get distracted. Maybe the content isn鈥檛 engaging enough, maybe the teacher鈥檚 methods don鈥檛 work for everyone, or maybe a classroom just isn鈥檛 for them. This is why online training is a better option, as unlike classroom based training, the learner will have the option to go over information, and properly understand what they are being taught at their own pace. If I can talk about what I know best here, 糖心传媒鈥檚 safety training software ensures that your training material is being read and absorbed. Learners can鈥檛 move forward until they fully understand the training material and they have proven that understanding by taking a quiz at the end. This ensures that your learners remember your material and are, ultimately, less susceptible to a serious accident. What鈥檚 our first tip? Use our online platform and see for yourself.

It Presents Information in a Digestible Format

Online new hire training provides information in what the call a bite-sized format. It鈥檚 easy to read, can work on pretty much any device and, ensures your workers understand everything. The guys at Swift point to a number of reasons why this bite-sized format works better than the classroom, they include the following three points:

New Hire Training Improves Psychological Engagement

Everyone would love to have engaging content to train with but assuming not all the materials will be novel or interesting in their own right trainers have to find ways in which to engage the trainees psychologically. Short format material can help with this by revealing its points one by one thereby creating anticipation about what is coming next and using teaser information to keep learners hooked. Using regular testing during the course also helps to involve the trainee beyond just being a passive spectator.

Takes Advantage of Our Natural Ebb and Flow

Our natural condition is to have our attention span ebb and flow so using online training can allow trainees to stop and recommence in line with this. Short, precise information also helps to combat falling attention levels by always introducing new material. This is in contrast to the classroom type training where sessions tend to be much longer and can see large fall offs in attention towards the end.

Speaks to the Twitter Generation about New Hire Training

As Swift rightly point out, today鈥檚 learners are 鈥渟wimming in a sea of information鈥�. Information is so accessible, and with the heightened awareness of social media, people want things that are easy to understand and memorable. It鈥檚 not an easy thing to do, providing information that your learners totally understand, but with new hire training you can allow continual checking of information through testing. Online training allows companies to speak directly to their employees, in language they can understand. The method of delivery of these materials, direct to laptop or mobile also works well for people nowadays who are used to using their phones and tablets to get information while on the move.

We鈥檙e all visual learners now

People remember information when it is attached to an image, let鈥檚 go back to Sesame Street for a moment. According to a 2013 report by four-year-olds who watched Sesame Street had literacy scores that were 67% higher than those didn鈥檛 watch. Over 90% of US parents noticed a change in their children鈥檚 counting, sorting and math after watching the show and the high-school grade average is higher with children who have watched the show. Let鈥檚 take that 90% number. If you鈥檙e not aware of the show鈥檚 characters, Count Dracula, who I mentioned before, uses a variety of images and numbers to teach children how to count. With Sesame Street, the numbers are usually disguised within a character to ensure the child鈥檚 attention is kept, what that shows is that the right image will likely stick with your learner longer than text. This is why we use a lot of images across our platform, it ensures your learners absorb and store information quickly. Sesame Street is an amazing example of a different approach to learning. All that is left really is for you to look at online learning, not as a replacement for the classroom, but as a better option for ensuring your learners are properly absorbing information. Image courtesy of See-Ming Lee, entitled ‘Let me tell you a secret’ under
Sonya Sikra

Sonya is the Brand Strategy Manager at 糖心传媒. She specializes in communicating how implementing tech in construction can drive productivity and profit.

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