Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction transforms your content delivery into an engaging journey that ensures real-world application and long-term retention.
🧠 WHAT WE LEARNED: A recap!
I our last article in this series, we defined effective learning objectives with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Now, with Gagné’s Nine Events, we’ll focus on how to present and deliver these objectives in a way that keeps learners engaged from start to finish.
In today’s fast-paced workplace, learners need more than just information—they need experiences that help them truly understand and use what they learn. That's where a well-structured approach like Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction comes into it's own.
Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction was developed by educational psychologist Robert Gagné. His nine events help those of us in the instructional design world create environments that support learners from beginning to end, ensuring that each stage of learning is focussed on the learner's success.
Can you imagine enduring a corporate compliance training program that throws information at a learner for 60-minutes and hopes some of it sticks (of course you can! 🥱)?
Now, imagine a program that uses Gagné's events; effectively guiding learners through the complex legal requirements, helping them recall their own prior knowledge, applying the new regulations in real-world scenarios as they learn, and then receiving timely feedback to reinforce the learning. 💡 Let's dive into this learning utopia together ...
✨ 1. Gain Attention
The first step is to gain learners' attention by sparking curiosity. This can be achieved with an interesting fact (e.g., 'Did you know that 70% of workplace skills are learned on the job?'), a thought-provoking question (e.g., 'What would happen if we stopped adapting to change?'), or a surprising statistic (e.g., 'Only 10% of employees feel fully engaged during compliance training'). By capturing learners' interest right from the start, you set the stage for active engagement throughout the learning process.
🎯 2. Inform Learners of Objectives
Next, inform learners of the objectives. When learners understand what they will achieve, they are more motivated to stay focused. Clear learning objectives give them a roadmap and help set expectations, providing a sense of purpose and direction for their journey.
🔄 3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge
To build a bridge between new and existing knowledge, stimulate recall of prior knowledge. This can be done with a quick recap, questions, or activities that connect what learners already know to what they are about to learn. This step primes learners for new material and makes it easier to integrate new information.
📚 4. Present the Content
The core of the learning experience is to present the content. This step involves delivering new information in a structured and digestible way. Using varied formats—such as videos, infographics, or storytelling—makes the content more engaging and caters to different learning styles. For example, videos can support visual and auditory learners, infographics are great for visual learners who need to see concepts laid out clearly, and storytelling appeals to those who learn best through narrative and emotional connections.
💡 5. Provide Learning Guidance
Provide learning guidance to help learners better understand the material. This can include offering examples, analogies, mnemonics, or other support tools that make the content easier to grasp. The aim is to scaffold learning so that learners can navigate the content with confidence.
🏋️♂️ 6. Elicit Performance (Practice)
Learning is reinforced through practice, so the next step is to elicit performance. Create opportunities for learners to apply their new knowledge through exercises, scenarios, or simulations. For example, a scenario could involve role-playing a difficult customer interaction, while a simulation might involve practicing the steps of a new software tool in a safe, guided environment. Practicing what they’ve learned helps solidify their understanding and boosts retention.
🔍 7. Provide Feedback
Feedback is essential to effective learning. Provide learners with immediate and constructive feedback on their performance. Whether through quizzes, direct responses, or interactive feedback in simulations, timely feedback helps learners correct errors and reinforce their understanding.
✅ 8. Assess Performance
To ensure learners have achieved the desired outcomes, assess performance. Use quizzes, tests, or assessments to measure how well learners understand and can apply what they’ve learned. This step is key to evaluating whether learning objectives have been met.
🚀 9. Enhance Retention and Transfer
Lastly, enhance retention and transfer by helping learners move new knowledge into long-term memory. Reinforce learning with resources like job aids, follow-up activities, or spaced repetition techniques that encourage learners to revisit and apply what they've learned in real-world situations. Spaced repetition works by gradually increasing the intervals between reviews of the content, which strengthens memory retention and helps move information into long-term memory. This technique is highly effective because it leverages the way our brains naturally learn and remember over time.
Why Gagné’s Events Work
Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction provide a structured, learner-centered approach to course design that aligns with how adults naturally learn. By following these steps, instructional designers can create engaging and effective learning experiences that not only deliver content but also help learners internalize and use what they’ve learned. 📈
🌐 UP NEXT: Breaking Down Content with Chunking
In our next eLearning Ignited article, we’ll look at Chunking—how to break down content into digestible pieces so learners can stay focused and retain information better.
If you're looking to elevate your learning programs or need expert support in creating engaging and effective eLearning experiences, REACH OUT TO US us at BrightSpark. Let's work together to unlock the full potential of your learners!
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