The internet is alight with blogs and articles about economic nudging, David Cameron’s ‘Nudge Unit’ and yet another economist (Richard Thaler) who’s recruited himself into the White House with promises to improve the effectiveness of government. For the last few hundred years, a simple assumption has dominated thinking about human nature: when faced with a set of choices, people make the one that’s most likely to serve their personal interests. But behavioural economists say that people often don’t make decisions like this. Less is more. MORE >>

Over the past couple of years I've been making quite a play on the need to design formal learning interventions so that they focus on inspiring and confidence building and not on dumping knowledge. In my experience of talking to 100s of trainers, the typical workplace intervention consists of 75% theory and 25% practice. This has two effects: Learners are overwhelmed with new knowledge that they cannot hope to retain. Learners have nowhere near enough time to develop confidence in applying new knowledge and skills, meaning they often leave the course in a state of 'conscious incompetence'. MORE >>

By Shelley A. Gable. As kids, many of us resisted bedtime. As adults, many of us wish we could get more sleep. For those in the midst of learning something new, a good night’s sleep can be especially beneficial. Studies of memory consolidation and sleep. Over the past several years, sleep researchers and neuroscientists have studied a process called memory consolidation, in which our brains integrate newly learned knowledge into long-term memory. Researchers believe that REM sleep helps facilitate this process. Researchers from the University of Lübeck. And there’s more! What do you think? MORE >>

As a follow up to the presentation I made at last weeks Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference  (PELeCON) with Sue Beckingham this infographic is worth a couple of minutes to look over. Click to view full Infographic]. Some interesting figures from the graphic: Europe accounts for over 34 million members (6 million in the UK alone) and India 11 million. 2011:  4.2 billion searches on the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn now has over 2,116 employees (up from 500 in 2010). The fastest growing demographics are students and recent college graduates. Revenues for 2011 reached $522 million. MORE >>

The internet is alight with blogs and articles about economic nudging, David Cameron’s ‘Nudge Unit’ and yet another economist (Richard Thaler) who’s recruited himself into the White House with promises to improve the effectiveness of government. For the last few hundred years, a simple assumption has dominated thinking about human nature: when faced with a set of choices, people make the one that’s most likely to serve their personal interests. But behavioural economists say that people often don’t make decisions like this. But is this easier said than done? Less is more. MORE >>