How do you adapt learning for beginners and experts?

The expertise reversal effect refers to the phenomenon that there is a difference in how an expert and a novice learn best in a field. The material or process that works well for a novice (simplified explanations, simple graphics, guided progression through the material, etc.) typically works very poorly for an expert. Because experts have more developed schemas about the material, they often prefer the opportunity to self-direct their work with the material and can understand more complicated explanations and diagrams than beginners can.

Beginners typically want to be “held by the hand” and have thorough explanations. Pictures and illustrations should not have too many details.

Experts typically want to control the course of the battle themselves. They know what they know and don't know, and want to be able to jump around in the material. They want pictures with lots of detail. Case-based learning, where experts are "thrown out" into a problem they have to solve, is also typically a good idea. Beginners risk cognitive overload if the task is too complex, which many cases are.

A bit bluntly, you could say that beginners like "explainer" videos that take them by the hand from AZ, and for experts, you should consider whether they should not just be allowed to read a text on paper, as this gives them maximum autonomy, and they can thereby dose the amount of information and pace themselves.

The expertise reversal effect is often a problem in situations where subject matter experts who are not used to developing teaching materials are involved in developing teaching materials aimed at beginners. Experts simply have difficulty understanding what it is like to be a beginner, and will often resort to more complicated and free learning designs, where there is a high risk of creating cognitive overload in the beginner's brain.

In my work, I often sit down with experts in a field and have to develop learning material for a group of people. The experts themselves may have spent 10-20 years gaining the knowledge and experience in the area that we are going to communicate together. Often, the target group for what the experts and I are going to do are beginners in the field. There are many, but fortunately not all, who see it as an opportunity to formulate EVERYTHING they know in their field. They probably think that if you then expose the recipients to this perfect amount of information, then they will learn everything the expert knows. After all, no one gets 20 years of experience and deep knowledge from reading a book, no matter how good it is.

Learning is a process, not a single event.

Therefore, it is important to find the right balance in the level of difficulty for the target group, otherwise you risk dropping them on the floor, either out of boredom or because the material is too difficult.

Experts should typically try to keep the information to a minimum and instead tell stories about their field that the audience can remember. They should bring their passion for their field into play and respect that the audience's working memory cannot capture much information at a time.

Are you looking for help developing e-learning , or would you like a course on e-learning where you learn how to create e-learning yourself - then contact us.

Do you want to? learn more?

If you are interested in reading more about the brain and learning, these articles might interest you.

• Self-determination theory. The most important theory you need to know about learning.
• Forced design – how not to design e-learning .
• Which learning methods best support motivation for learning?
• Your brain is NOT a computer - Predictive Coding
• Flick 2 learn. Why Interactive elearning is NOT always exciting elearning
• Gamification
• This is your brain on Tetris
• The mental shotgun

If you want to know more about digital learning and e-learning, you can start with our E-learning FAQ