Yo! Wayne!

Great idea! And the methods you would use to do this are: ________?

There is a difference between effective learning and fatigue is one variable, but most important is knowledge retention which is a building block to learning a skill.

I agree with several of the posts in that interactivity, interest, and complexity of the material are variables.

Another is the ability of the tool to support learning paths, and interactive capabilities.

Brevity is a beautiful thing, but changed behavior based on knowledge transfer (after 30 days is a good measure) and skills enabled are the litmus.

We use BrainFlick for interactive enagement and learning paths, and one of the curriculum design features you can enable of course is a question that trips them into taking a break....then beginning when they are fresh - that way the learner sets the pace.

Let me know what you decide is optimum - but long story short - 5 minute segments chained together, with pause opportunities and we create objects you can reuse which gives the assembler of learning objects and the learner the flexibility reaquired to optimize the learning opportunity at hand.

Best of luck!

Ed Cowsar
Train Better, Sell More.
ed.cowsar@insidemethods.com

Thank all of you for your responses. Great stuff!

What you are really addressing is a "Cognitive Load Theory". Simply, you are attempting to know the limits of learning. Studies surrounding this topic have suggested that the time committed to learning methods are directly related to the instructional material and media.

You might want to address the difficulty of the material, the method of presentation and then evaluate the effectiveness of your training.

I think this is more of a question about audience engagement than it is actual seat time. If your content is extreme page turner and only text-based, well 10 minutes seat time is going to feel like 2 hours.

If you can engage the user with interactions, animations or movies, and well written content. Then I think that 45 minutes to an hour isn't unrealistic.

It's tough to put a time limit on learning. If you have an 8 hour course, well having a break every 5 minutes just isn't going to work. Keep them engaged (easier said then done), and they can pay attention for much longer.