A new mobile app is now available that automates the learning re-engagement process.
Matt DenHartog started his app RECUR after realizing the extent to which people weren’t retaining what they were learning.
“I was listening to the DREAM. THINK. DO. podcast and I heard three or four really successful people talking about rereading a book for the third or fourth time,” said DenHartog. “And it got me thinking about how crazy it was that even these really successful people weren’t remembering what they were taking in. How much of a waste is this that they’re reading an applicable book and not consuming it enough that they’re moving past it?”
Research shows that we forget anywhere between 75-90% of everything we learn in the first 30 days unless we reengage with it in some shape or form, DenHartog told Clay & Milk.
“Instinctively I think we know this,” he said. “We take notes, highlight things, underline things in books. But the truth is very rarely do we ever go back and look at those key learnings.”
The app, now available on Apple and Android devices, works by having users download the app and subscribe to their appropriate learning feed. RECUR then redelivers the key concepts and takeaways from learning events straight to your phone. These short re-engagements are delivered at strategic intervals to create higher retention and a higher return on learning.
“The whole idea is that you take those key learnings and, separate from any social interactions, create an app that alone is dedicated to reengaging people with learning,” said Denhartog.
The people curating the content are the teachers and organizers of the learning events. Users will then rate posts as they are delivered to them.
“The function of that [rating posts] is that data goes back to the content organizer and they get feedback of the posts they’re creating,” said DenHartog. “So not only does the end-user get value from it, but the content creator gets feedback so they can refine future posts.”
There are two types of groups RECUR is going after—group learning and individual coaching.
“With group learning, the learning is non-customized and everyone is on the same timeline. That could be corporate training, conferences, speakers, workshops, churches,” said DenHartog. “Then, on the other end of the spectrum is coaching, which is completely individualized content. I didn’t expect the coaching aspect to work in this first iteration, but it does which is really exciting.”