The Learning Retention Formula

"Most L&D professionals know that learners forget up to 70% of new information within 24 hours. It's called the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, and it's been haunting corporate training programs since the 1880s. But what if there was a way to not just slow the curve-but reverse it entirely? After building a learning platform used by over 50,000 learners and analyzing millions of learning interactions, we discovered something surprising: spaced repetition alone improves retention by about 200%."

"Spaced repetition is the practice of reviewing information at increasing intervals. Instead of cramming everything into a single session, learners revisit material after 1 day, then 3 days, then 7 days, and then 30 days. The science is rock-solid. Over 100 years of research confirms that spacing out practice dramatically improves long-term memory formation. The brain consolidates memories more effectively when retrieval is effortful-and spacing creates that productive struggle. But here's the problem: spaced repetition is boring."

Most L&D professionals know that learners forget up to 70% of new information within 24 hours due to the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. Analysis of a learning platform used by over 50,000 learners and millions of interactions showed spaced repetition alone improves retention by about 200%, and combining it with game mechanics compounds results to roughly 300% better retention than traditional approaches. Spaced repetition schedules revisit material after 1, 3, 7, and 30 days to promote effortful retrieval. Pure spaced repetition programs suffer low completion rates (15–20%) because learners find repetition boring, while gamification alone often incentivizes reward-chasing over meaningful learning.

Read at eLearning Industry