A manifesto for visual learning

It’s about time you started

For the last 40 years it has been well known that traditional ways of education are inefficient. And yet we still haven’t made many changes in the education field, which is quite peculiar if one thinks about it. A study, already conducted in 1969 (!), found that after three days only 10 percent of written information was remembered by students, compared to 65 percent of visual/verbal information. An 6.5x increase. Not only did students respond faster to visual learning in comparison to textual materials, they were also more likely to be intrigued by the subject and store information for the long term.

Meanwhile both in the classroom as well as in the workfield most learning is still not visually supported. In our daily work we still see whole departments that write procedures on paper and store them nicely into categories on intranets (so no-one can find them).

So this article we offer a small manifesto for change.

You may have many reasons not to change to visual learning as of today. So we will give a few additional arguments and call upon you to challenge them. In addition, we will also provide you with the means on how to start today.

“Not everyone is a visual learner”

Not true. Everyone is.

# 1 Visual learning and memory

Visual learning is the most effective way to activate the long-term memory. We argue that ALL people are visual learners. Words are mostly processed by our short-term memory, when in fact images are directly processed by our long-term memory. Additionally, visuals, as opposed to text, are processed 60.000 times faster and almost 90% of all information transmitted to the brain is visual.

# 2 Visual learning aids comprehension

Another important reason why visual learning outshines traditional other forms of education, is the fact that visual learning aids better comprehension. Our brain can comprehend a visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second. When given a textual description (such as the ‘red-square’ example, presented above) the human mind has to process that information and create understanding, whilst if given a graphic description, the comprehension is almost immediately present. If this is true in the simple case of the red square, than it is most certainly true for complex programs, machines and procedures in the workplace.

# 3 Visual learnings boosts motivation

Furthermore, visual learning drives motivation. Engaging employees with interesting videos or images instead of textual manuals, gives employees the drive to actively interact with their work. Creating variation in the workplace is a great means for more devoted, enthusiast employees.

“We don’t have the means to start visual learning”

Of course you do!

The visual learning platform GPAL

GPAL, our visual learning platform, innovates the process of learning by the use of self-made short instruction videos as a way of visual learning. We believe video instructions made by your own experts combined with social group interaction outshines conventional learning methods. We developed a very easy to use and accessible interactive learning platform together with our customers.

“ We have seen many cases where a dull written procedure becomes a fun and alive video instruction owned by the group of makers”

GPAL focuses on facilitating visual learning, which improves knowledge-levels among trainees, new-employees and long-term employees. With the use of short instructional videos made by your own experts, employees learn from and interact with each other. GPAL is already used by a large variety of customers, including the Marine school of the Dutch Defense Force, where an academic research showed the positive effects of using visual learning.

Want to know how to start with visual learning in your organisation?

We have an easy to use platform and a method to start implementing it in your organisation.

Why wait another 40 years?