4. Learning Experience Audit

How to use this activity

This activity supports practical application of the concepts in your lesson.

Download this activity as a docx file

Work through the activity step by step. Keep your answers concise and focused

Return to your lesson when you are done.

What to do: Analyse one part of your training to identify cognitive overload, passive learning, and missed opportunities for retrieval, practice, and interaction

Expected output: A short diagnostic identifying key learning risks and 2–3 concrete improvements to strengthen learning

Approximate time: 15–20 minutes

Used in

Part 1 — Lesson 4: How People Learn

Before you start

You will typically need:

Outputs from earlier activities (if applicable)

Notes from your current lesson

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Instructions¶

Pick one segment of your training — a session, a module, or a single activity — and audit it against the learning principles from this lesson. The goal is a concrete diagnostic: where is learning at risk, and what specific changes would strengthen it?

You will use¶

One part of your training (planned or existing)
Your learner realities from Activity 3: Learner Reality Mapping — specifically one learner constraint that affects how people learn in your context

Select a training segment¶

Which part of your training are you analysing? Describe it briefly — what happens, how long it takes, and what learners are expected to do or produce.

Cognitive load check¶

Review your selected segment for signs of overload:

Where might learners feel overwhelmed — too many new ideas, unfamiliar vocabulary, or complex instructions all at once?
What prior knowledge are you assuming learners have? Is that assumption realistic given what you documented in Activity 3?
Where are too many new concepts introduced without time to process?
Pick one learner constraint from Activity 3. How does it increase cognitive load in this segment? (For example, if learners are working in a second language, every instruction carries extra processing cost.)

Active learning check¶

Where are learners actively doing something — practising, producing, explaining, deciding?
Where are they passive — listening, reading, watching?
For each passive stretch longer than 10 minutes, ask: could learners recall, explain, or apply something here instead?

Where do learners interact with each other?
Where do they learn from each other's experience or perspectives?
Where could structured discussion, peer feedback, or collaborative problem-solving improve understanding?

Improvements¶

Based on your audit, propose three specific changes:

One way to reduce cognitive load: ___
One way to increase retrieval or practice: ___
One way to increase meaningful interaction: ___

For each, describe what you would actually change — not just the principle, but the concrete design move.

Translation to your learners¶

How do your learners' specific realities (from Activity 3) affect which improvements are most important? Which of your three proposed changes would make the biggest difference for the learners you actually have?

Context check¶

Are your proposed improvements realistic given your constraints — time, infrastructure, group size, facilitator capacity?
Which improvement is feasible right now, and which would require changes to resources or logistics?

Reflection¶

What was the most significant learning risk you identified in your audit — the one that, if left unaddressed, would most undermine what learners take away? What does that tell you about your design priorities going forward?