Videconferencing is as good as being there

Does being face-to-face make a difference for learning?  Is there something different about learning at a distance?

You may be in a position, like I am, where people ask these questions and worry that learning with a distance modality is going to be inferior.  In most situations though, there just doesn’t appear to be an advantage for learning face-to-face.  

That’s not only true for learning, research is starting to suggest that it’s true for other kinds of interactions too.   

Therapy works just as well when it’s delivered using video conferencing

A group from Hong Kong University compared outcomes for a cognitive intervention delivered to one group in a traditional face-to-face method and to another group using videoconferencing technology.  The intervention was a cognitive therapy designed for older adults who had memory complaints and problems with declining memory.  Each group got 12 sessions of therapy and their scores on standard memory tests and dementia scales were measured before and after the intervention.  

The results for groups were about the same.

This finding is not unusual.  A recent review article on delivering therapies at a distance found that people got similar results in-person and using videoconferencing T hey concluded that:

“Across studies, telehealth technologies were found to provide roughly equivalent clinical outcomes ... and process variables … as traditional in-person treatments.”

 How you deliver training doesn’t seem to be important

It’s not surprising that therapy delivered over a distance works just as well as it does in-person, that’s the same finding that educational research has been reporting for over a decade.

Two recent reviews sum it up.  

The Department of Education says that:

“Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction”

And a review of internet learning from JAMA (The Journal fo the American Medical Association) concluded that training over the internet appeared to be equally effective effective as training delivered in-person.  

What you have people do is important, how you connect with them isn’t.  

1. Poon, P., Hui, E., Dai, D., Kwok, T., and J. Woo (2004). Cognitive intervention for community-dwelling older persons with memory problems: telemedicine versus face-to-face.  International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20:285-286.  

2. Gros, DF; Morland, LA; Greene, CJ; Acierno, R; Strachan, M; Egede, LE; Tuerk, PW; Myrick, H; and BC Frueh (2013).  Delivery of evidence-based psychotherapy via video telehealth.  Journal of Psychopathological Behavioral Assessment, 35:506-521.

3. Means, B., Toyama, Y. Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2010). Evaluation of evidence-based practice in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies.  A Report prepared for the US Department of Education, Center for Technology in Learning.

4, Cook, D. A., Levinson, A. J., Garside, S., Dupras, D. M., Erwin, P. J., & Montori, V.M. (2008). Internet based learning in the health professions: A meta-analysis.  JAMA, 10, 1181-96. 

Spreading learning over time may be an old idea but it's very effective. 

We can use what we know about learning and memory to design better learning experiences.  One of the strongest principles of learning is that learning takes time.  If we can divide our training into several sessions instead of a using a single longer session, our training will be more effective and our students will be better able to remember and use the new information.    

Here’s an example of how that might work; Carlos is a nurse manager who needs to help his team learn a new procedure.  When he’s needed to do training in the past, Carlos has blocked off a large chunk of time to demonstrate new procedures and let his nurses practice them.  This is not a bad strategy, having people learn about, then practice a new technique is often an effective way to help them learn.  

But Carlos can do something that will make his training sessions even more effective.  Instead of a single session where he shows his nurses how to do the new procedure and then gives them a chance to practice it, he can spread the same amount of instruction over two or three shorter daily sessions.  

Why is it important to divide the learning sessions?  Spreading learning out over time, sometimes called spaced learning or spaced practice, is one of the most effective ways to improve learning and memory.  

Interestingly, it works not just for humans, but it is a general property of learning for different species.  For instance, researchers, examining the effects of spacing on memory have taught honeybees to react to certain odors by extending their proboscises.  Bees have been taught to react to odor A, but not to Odor B, and they’ve been taught more complex reactions like reacting to odors a and B together, but not A or B by itself.  These memories are stronger if the learning sessions have been spaced out over time.1

This spacing effect is not a new idea; it was first described by Herman Ebbinghaus, a psychologist who did groundbreaking work on memory starting in 1879.  Ebbinghaus discovered many basic features of memory including the spacing effect.  Ebbinghaus used himself as a subject, memorizing many individual items and tracking his ability to remember them.  He discovered that he could improve his ability to remember items by spacing spacing his learning sessions over time, instead learning them in a single session.  

Carlos can use these principles to improve the training he’s giving to his nurses.  Spacing the learning sessions over time will improve the chances that his nurses will remember the new procedure and be able to use it effectively with patients.  Instead of using a single hour or two to learn the procedure, Carlos could break the up the learning into shorter 15 or 20 minute sessions over several days.  It might take a little more work on Carlos’ part to arrange this training but his benefit because they will have a much better chance of using the new procedure successfully.  

1. Menzel, R., Maz, G., Menzel, R., and U. Greggers (2001), Massed and spaced learning in honeybees: The role of CS, US, the interval, and the test interval.  Learning and Memory, 8:198-208.