CDLA · Module 2 — Learning science for digital media
Why learning that feels easy often fades, and how to schedule and mix practice so it lasts. Distributed practice, interleaving and desirable difficulties applied to courses and pathways.
About 22 min
Practice in the lesson player
Sorting, matching, quizzes, and the module gate stay behind a free account so scored answers are not public. The teaching notes below are the same cited curriculum.
01
A bank moves its product training from three short sessions over three weeks into one intensive day. Satisfaction scores rise: learners say it felt clearer and more efficient. Six weeks later, mystery-shopper scores on product advice are lower than before. Nothing went wrong in the room. The design produced fluency on the day, and fluency is a poor predictor of what people will remember.
02
Robert and Elizabeth Bjork use the term desirable difficulties for conditions that slow learning during practice but improve long-term retention and transfer. The three best supported are spacing practice over time, interleaving different types of problem, and retrieval practice. They are desirable only if the learner can eventually succeed: difficulty that the learner cannot overcome is just difficulty.
03
Spacing: Cepeda and colleagues' 2006 meta-analysis of distributed practice found spaced sessions beat massed sessions for later recall, and that the best gap grows with how long you need people to remember.
Interleaving: Mixing problem types (Rohrer and Taylor's maths studies, and studies on classifying categories) helps learners learn to choose the right method, not only to execute it. Blocked practice hides the choice.
Judgements of learning: Learners consistently rate massed and blocked practice as more effective, even when their own test results show the opposite.
04
These are design starting points derived from the spacing research, not prescriptions from a single study. Adjust to the risk and the frequency of use on the job.
Need to remember for. | A workable schedule
One to two weeks (a launch) | Course, then retrieval on day 2 and day 7
A quarter (a new process) | Course, then day 3, week 2, week 5, week 10
A year (annual compliance) | Course, then month 1, month 3, month 6, plus a scenario before the high-risk season
05
Blocked: Ten refund cases, then ten exchange cases, then ten complaint cases. · Feels smooth; scores high during practice.
Interleaved: Thirty cases mixed, so the learner must first decide which type each one is. · Feels harder; scores lower during practice, higher later and on unfamiliar cases.
06
Take the module you have been reviewing. Without adding total learner time, redesign it as a course plus spaced, mixed retrieval over the period people need to remember it. Write the schedule and the first two follow-up items. This completes your design review artifact.