Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
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42 August / September 2016 Elearning! 2 sigma sigma ere are a lot of other solutions starting to to take shape in the peer collaboration, re- take shape in the peer collaboration, re- inforcement, inforcement, and other areas that technol- and other areas that technol- ogy ogy can enable. Take reinforcement provid- can enable. Take reinforcement provid- ed ed by the teacher which can be challenging by the teacher which can be challenging when when faced with a large class size and the faced with a large class size and the burden burden falls onto a single instructor. falls onto a single instructor. An example of an alternative learning reinforcement reinforcement tool is a product, Trivie, tool is a product, Trivie, which which is based on the game Trivial Pursuit. is based on the game Trivial Pursuit. In In the corporate learning world, Trivie uses the corporate learning world, Trivie uses technology technology to send out questions to students to send out questions to students both both during and aer a training scenario. As during and aer a training scenario. As the the student gets each answer right, he or she student gets each answer right, he or she can can be rewarded with points, positive com- be rewarded with points, positive com- ments ments or other incentives that can be stipu- or other incentives that can be stipu- lated lated in the app. And of course, the notion of in the app. And of course, the notion of lated in the app. And of course, the notion of points points has a special meaning because of the has a special meaning because of the world world of gamification. e accumulation of of gamification. e accumulation of points points can also be made to have an impact can also be made to have an impact on on another list item — peer group influence. another list item — peer group influence. This kind of game and learning reinforcement reinforcement technology can use technology can use leaderboards, leaderboards, prescriptive paths when prescriptive paths when wrong wrong answers are given, or predefined answers are given, or predefined coaching coaching prods if the student doesn't prods if the student doesn't get get the right answer. Some implementa- the right answer. Some implementa- tions even employ an electronic "great job!" job!" to reinforce a student's learning. to reinforce a student's learning. But most importantly, reinforcement provides a 1.2 sigma impact on student achievement. Pepper is a novel tool that begins to ad- dress the feedback-corrective variable is a novel tool under development that was designed to help train sales people to over- come the top three objections to hir or her company's products. If a sales person is able to overcome these objections, there is a lot of data that says it will translate into significantly larger sales pipelines and or- der volumes. The way this tool works is by random- ly sending out a pre-recorded telephone call to each sales team member during their normal work day. Each message poses a recorded objection that a cus- tomer might verbalize, and the sales rep- tomer might verbalize, and the sales rep- resentative is required to respond with an explanation that mitigates that objec- tion. That verbal response is stored in a database, and can then be passed to that sales representative's manager or to a peer for review. At that point, the sales manager or peer can suggest cor- rective tutoring to help that sales person overcome that objection better. That same type of technology can easily be- come a tool for determining a student's grasp of a particular subject. Now that mobile phones are so prevalent, it would be possible to send out a verbal micro- test question, in order to see how the student might answer it when put on the spot. If the student gets it wrong, the teacher or professor could use that data to provide the necessary corrective measure to help that student. This same technology might also provide a way to measure critical thinking on the part of a student. Professors often find it diffi- cult to encourage and test critical think- ing amongst their students. Using this tool to prompt a judgment may provide a way to test whether an objective analy- sis and evaluation of an issue is being made by a student. e two best solutions on the horizon for solving the 2 Sigma Problem are AI (artificial intelligence) and the Internet of ings (IoT). Back in 2010, a social robot named Bina48 was a keynote at the Enterprise Learning Conference and she was the most advanced social robot in existence at that point. Questions could be posed verbally, If [you] don't have to teach every day, then [your] role is going to move toward the tutoring and mentoring side of the equation.