Make sure the e-learning bells and whistles help people learn
Designing an effective online course is a tall and sometimes intimidating task — especially if it’s your first attempt. What’s the best strategy for survival? Learn the basics of effective instructional design.
From a digital perspective, all the glitz and glitter of dancing images, seductive sounds and high-tech special effects do little to salvage learning that has faulty design.
Instructional design begins with an analysis of learning needs and goals, followed by translating those needs into a learning product through the development of instructional materials and activities. The learning product is then evaluated for its effectiveness in meeting learner needs.
The acronym ADDIE is often used to refer to traditional instructional design. ADDIE stands for the five stages of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. The ADDIE approach works fine for traditional training products such as face-to-face sessions. But there are inherent problems when ADDIE is applied to the world of online learning.
Online learning initiatives must often be produced on tight timelines and limited budgets. Resources for in-depth needs analysis are limited. Online learning content may need to be updated on a regular basis. ADDIE is based on linear content presentation, while online learning provides rich opportunities for non-linear exploration. Finally, ADDIE assumes that learners are present face-to-face in real time. Not so in the case of online learning.
To address some of these differences, a new more flexible approach to instructional design has evolved for online learning. It involves a cycle of brainstorming ideas, building solutions, and conducting ongoing testing and revisions. It’s a fluid model of design that is highly iterative and less rigid than its classic cousin.
Three pillars of success
There are three key criteria for success: motivate learners, provide the right scope, sequence and structure of content, and ensure engagement through interaction.
Motivation: First generation e-learning projects have experienced a high rate of drop-outs. Reasons for this are varied. In some cases, technology is the culprit, causing undue stress in navigating learning content. In other cases, content fails to hit the mark. It’s irrelevant, superficial or poorly structured. Many people drop out of e-learning due to lack of motivation.
People need to be motivated to learn. The “what’s in it for me?” factor needs to be front and centre. Will working through a module help someone deal with office politics, master a feature-rich customer service database or close a product sale? Learning takes energy. If students aren’t motivated, they won’t retain information, let alone apply new knowledge or skills.
A common cause of learner apathy is badly written course objectives. The vast majority of learning objectives are written in an inactive voice and a downright boring manner. Instead, present an interesting fact, play a motivational audio clip from a recognized industry expert or present a brief case study that will be resolved as the learner moves through the content.
Motivational strategies need to be woven throughout any online learning solution. Learners need to be motivated to begin the journey, motivated to continue and motivated to apply their learning back on the job.
Content: Creating good e-learning requires defining the scope of content, as well as structuring that content based on learner needs.
From a content perspective, first generation e-learning ventures are a breeze to spot. They may cover a lot of ground, but they have one huge handicap — they present material from the wrong end of the spectrum.
These content-centric approaches tend to move from the presentation of the simple to the complex. They may be chronological or hierarchical in structure. And they often fail abysmally at engaging learners.
Let’s look at content from the flip side — from the learner’s perspective. If an employee needs to complete a course in project management, then the content must be relevant: How to select the best team members? How to save time in development of a project plan? What are the best options if the budget gets cut? The employee would want to know how content relates to his needs, where he can find answers to pressing questions, and what resources he can use tomorrow.
Interactivity: Interactivity is an aspect of instructional design that is rarely done well, probably because it takes skill to master.
Let’s be clear on what instructional interactivity is not. Interactivity does not consist of mindless arrow clicking through screens of sequenced content. It is not a scrolling marathon down a page. Nor is it retrieval of PDF files in a knowledge repository. An interactive presentation does not consist of one-way communication via a talking-head video clip. And it most definitely is not slick animation with flying words and upbeat music.
True instructional interactivity helps a learner make connections with content, problem solve, analyze, classify, reflect on feedback and practice new skills while actively constructing meaning.
Good interactivity has a lot in common with good instruction. It encourages learners to think. It helps learners synthesize new information. Powerful interactive experiences let learners test-drive new skills that mirror tasks they will encounter in the workplace. It offers detailed feedback, and allow learners to experiment with different actions in a safe, non-judgmental environment.
Take as an example, a compelling program aimed at health-care professionals teaches learners the proper procedures for emergency room cases. It lets learners role-play as nurse while a series of patients are wheeled into the ER in need of immediate care. The learner works through the simulation deciding what tests to order and which medication to administer given the patient’s condition. She makes decisions, accesses resources and applies learning within a realistic context.
Poor renditions of instructional interactivity also abound. Some so-called learning modules amount to little more than digital busywork. Mundane multiple choice questions request low-level recall of facts. Incorrect answers merely trigger a “Try again” prompt with no hope for remedial responses. Other times, learners are instructed to complete artificial mix-and-match or drag-and-drop activities with no on-the-job context.
Smart instructional interactivity includes four essential ingredients: context, challenge, activity and intrinsic feedback. Context ensures that learning dovetails with on-the-job performance. Integrated challenges mean that learners must apply new knowledge and skills to problems that grow in complexity. Activities are indelibly linked to the context, and are true thinking exercises. Feedback is less concerned with awarding points and immediate judgments, and more focused on building proficiency.
No one said online instructional design would be easy. It demands a shift in mindset from traditional classroom design, and attention to the three pillars of success.
Sandra Mingail is vice-president of new media at Humansense.com Inc. She is an instructional designer, e-learning consultant and member of the Canadian Society for Training and Development.
From a digital perspective, all the glitz and glitter of dancing images, seductive sounds and high-tech special effects do little to salvage learning that has faulty design.
Instructional design begins with an analysis of learning needs and goals, followed by translating those needs into a learning product through the development of instructional materials and activities. The learning product is then evaluated for its effectiveness in meeting learner needs.
The acronym ADDIE is often used to refer to traditional instructional design. ADDIE stands for the five stages of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. The ADDIE approach works fine for traditional training products such as face-to-face sessions. But there are inherent problems when ADDIE is applied to the world of online learning.
Online learning initiatives must often be produced on tight timelines and limited budgets. Resources for in-depth needs analysis are limited. Online learning content may need to be updated on a regular basis. ADDIE is based on linear content presentation, while online learning provides rich opportunities for non-linear exploration. Finally, ADDIE assumes that learners are present face-to-face in real time. Not so in the case of online learning.
To address some of these differences, a new more flexible approach to instructional design has evolved for online learning. It involves a cycle of brainstorming ideas, building solutions, and conducting ongoing testing and revisions. It’s a fluid model of design that is highly iterative and less rigid than its classic cousin.
Three pillars of success
There are three key criteria for success: motivate learners, provide the right scope, sequence and structure of content, and ensure engagement through interaction.
Motivation: First generation e-learning projects have experienced a high rate of drop-outs. Reasons for this are varied. In some cases, technology is the culprit, causing undue stress in navigating learning content. In other cases, content fails to hit the mark. It’s irrelevant, superficial or poorly structured. Many people drop out of e-learning due to lack of motivation.
People need to be motivated to learn. The “what’s in it for me?” factor needs to be front and centre. Will working through a module help someone deal with office politics, master a feature-rich customer service database or close a product sale? Learning takes energy. If students aren’t motivated, they won’t retain information, let alone apply new knowledge or skills.
A common cause of learner apathy is badly written course objectives. The vast majority of learning objectives are written in an inactive voice and a downright boring manner. Instead, present an interesting fact, play a motivational audio clip from a recognized industry expert or present a brief case study that will be resolved as the learner moves through the content.
Motivational strategies need to be woven throughout any online learning solution. Learners need to be motivated to begin the journey, motivated to continue and motivated to apply their learning back on the job.
Content: Creating good e-learning requires defining the scope of content, as well as structuring that content based on learner needs.
From a content perspective, first generation e-learning ventures are a breeze to spot. They may cover a lot of ground, but they have one huge handicap — they present material from the wrong end of the spectrum.
These content-centric approaches tend to move from the presentation of the simple to the complex. They may be chronological or hierarchical in structure. And they often fail abysmally at engaging learners.
Let’s look at content from the flip side — from the learner’s perspective. If an employee needs to complete a course in project management, then the content must be relevant: How to select the best team members? How to save time in development of a project plan? What are the best options if the budget gets cut? The employee would want to know how content relates to his needs, where he can find answers to pressing questions, and what resources he can use tomorrow.
Interactivity: Interactivity is an aspect of instructional design that is rarely done well, probably because it takes skill to master.
Let’s be clear on what instructional interactivity is not. Interactivity does not consist of mindless arrow clicking through screens of sequenced content. It is not a scrolling marathon down a page. Nor is it retrieval of PDF files in a knowledge repository. An interactive presentation does not consist of one-way communication via a talking-head video clip. And it most definitely is not slick animation with flying words and upbeat music.
True instructional interactivity helps a learner make connections with content, problem solve, analyze, classify, reflect on feedback and practice new skills while actively constructing meaning.
Good interactivity has a lot in common with good instruction. It encourages learners to think. It helps learners synthesize new information. Powerful interactive experiences let learners test-drive new skills that mirror tasks they will encounter in the workplace. It offers detailed feedback, and allow learners to experiment with different actions in a safe, non-judgmental environment.
Take as an example, a compelling program aimed at health-care professionals teaches learners the proper procedures for emergency room cases. It lets learners role-play as nurse while a series of patients are wheeled into the ER in need of immediate care. The learner works through the simulation deciding what tests to order and which medication to administer given the patient’s condition. She makes decisions, accesses resources and applies learning within a realistic context.
Poor renditions of instructional interactivity also abound. Some so-called learning modules amount to little more than digital busywork. Mundane multiple choice questions request low-level recall of facts. Incorrect answers merely trigger a “Try again” prompt with no hope for remedial responses. Other times, learners are instructed to complete artificial mix-and-match or drag-and-drop activities with no on-the-job context.
Smart instructional interactivity includes four essential ingredients: context, challenge, activity and intrinsic feedback. Context ensures that learning dovetails with on-the-job performance. Integrated challenges mean that learners must apply new knowledge and skills to problems that grow in complexity. Activities are indelibly linked to the context, and are true thinking exercises. Feedback is less concerned with awarding points and immediate judgments, and more focused on building proficiency.
No one said online instructional design would be easy. It demands a shift in mindset from traditional classroom design, and attention to the three pillars of success.
Sandra Mingail is vice-president of new media at Humansense.com Inc. She is an instructional designer, e-learning consultant and member of the Canadian Society for Training and Development.
