Beruflich Dokumente
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CREATING e-LEARNING
THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
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by Ethan Edwards
chief instructional strategist
allen interactions
CREATING e-LEARNING THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Table of Contents
Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Add Visual Appeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Build a Relevant Contextual Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Tell a Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Create Suspense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Challenge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Consequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Difficulty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Risk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Outcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Limited Range of Learning Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Practice Makes Perfect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Two e-Learning Approaches Compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Drag-and-Drop Interactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Value in Creating Effort Around User Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Judgment vs. Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Feedback as a Tool for Content Presentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Using Intrinsic Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Delaying Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Presenting Consequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Reduce telephone expenses within the first Reduce telephone expenses within the first
half of the fiscal year. half of the fiscal year.
YES NO S M A R T
Achieving instructional interactivity in a lesson requires So how does one create compelling context? It is a fine
a holistic view of the design. Rather than just stringing balance. Context can easily overpower content. I’ve
standard questioning formats together in a logical seen this when an intricate game framework is super-
sequence, the design must create a meaningful imposed on top of content without regard to meaning
experience in which the learner operates. That or relevance, or when the complexity and accuracy of a
experience requires four integrated components: simulation obscures and complicates the delivery of a
Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback. simple message. The more common problem, though,
is simply the lack of any meaning or memorable context
for delivering the message and creating interest. While
there is an art to creating good context, it is not particularly
Context difficult. The discussion that follows outlines four simple
ways to establish context.
Figure 6.C
Figure 6.B
Figure 6.D
Create Suspense
The great benefit of creating a powerful and meaningful
Closely related to storytelling is the creation and context is that it creates an opportunity for engaging the
resolution of suspense as a way to draw in the learner. learner in a compelling and non-trivial challenge.
It may seem in some ways ironic, but a great way to get
people to continue to listen is to withhold information When we talk about challenge in the context of an
from them. As long as there is something that the e-learning course’s instructional design, we’re considering
learner values that the lesson promises to deliver, the the part of the experience that creates in the learner
learner is unlikely to disengage. This can be as complex some desire, some urgency, some willingness to perform.
as actually creating a mystery of sorts where the lesson The e-learning simply provides visual (and sometimes
works toward some kind of true resolution, or it can be auditory) stimuli to which the learner must respond.
as simple as grouping tasks together and delaying the But we want our learners to be actively engaged in
time that judgment is finally given. carrying out the most successful responses to the tasks
presented. And this is mainly a function of the sense of
The example below (Figure 7.B) deals with something challenge embodied in the e-learning.
as simple as teaching kitchen workers the fresh fruits
that should be dipped in lemon juice before serving to The common reaction to most e-learning as being boring
prevent browning. That doesn’t seem like a topic rich is more about the lack of a challenge than some intrinsic
with suspense! But the simple interaction below uses boring quality of content. Learners need to know that
there’s something personal at stake in the training. They
Figure 7.B
Figure 8.B
motivation to work toward that end.
Figure 8.C
Consequence
Figure 9.B
true:” and then present options laced with negatives and
complex conjunctions. Questions of this ilk so often test
reading comprehension and test taking instincts more
than actually assessing performance gains.
Figure 10.B
learning activities is the key to making a difference in
Outcome expanding learner’s skills through engaging interactivity.
The activity, clicking check boxes, has nothing to do with Drag-and-Drop Interactivity
ultimate successful performance. The question format,
itself, by cuing the desired target items, ignores the fact Designers often think that simply creating actions of
that the learner could be nursing a large number of greater complexity, the learning will be improved.
“alternative” misconceptions that are not even addressed. Actually, the reverse is often the case. Drag-and-
Further, the only item in the list not to be checked (the drop interactivity is frequently hailed as a “better” or
second option) is really more of a “trick” question to “advanced” action around which to build a question.
trip up the student for carelessness rather than actually True, drag-and-drop does require more senses and a
helping the learner internalize this content. higher level of attention, but that challenge can backfire
if misused. For example, the screen below (Figure 12.C)
Compare this approach with the activity illustrated in the illustrates a common matching exercise. The user must
alternative approach below (Figure 12.B). Here the learner drag letters from the right to the empty boxes on the
Figure 12.B
Figure 12.C
Figure 13.B
This is not to say that drag-and-drop functionality can’t
be really effective. In the example below (Figure 13.A), the
learner is to identify security breaches in a workplace setting
by dragging the magnifying glass to the offending images.
Again, the visual-spatial nature of the task reinforces
the visual focus desired in the ultimate performance
behavior, but it also creates an immersion in the context
and the challenge that is very engaging. Put more
simply, it makes the action fun while still maintaining
appropriate attention to the core lesson objectives.
Figure 13.A
Feedback as a Tool for Content Presentation In the Corning Inc. Employee Security course (Figures 14.A
and 14.B), the learner is asked to evaluate a situation
One of the biggest traps e-learning designers fall into is regarding what constitutes a “troubling situation.” The
the idea that their job is mainly to deliver content. The re- learner encounters the “definition” of a troubling situation
sults of this design focus are the tedious, content-heavy in the feedback, only after having reasoned through
page turners that no one wants but that everyone ends what is the most pressing security threat in the scenario.
up with anyway. This content-centered design approach
focuses almost entirely on the way to divide up content,
with interactions tacked on as accessories. Instead, the Using Intrinsic Feedback
best e-learning is created with a learner-centered focus,
in which primary attention is given to creating the learn- Intrinsic feedback is status information given back to
ing experience — letting the content flow through the the user that is naturally part of the task, or intrinsic to
activity and its consequences. In other words, get the the learning activity. The contrast to intrinsic feedback is
learner into a task quickly, and then provide content extrinsic feedback — feedback that is applied to judging
instruction through the feedback. or correcting the user without any particular specific
connection to the task at hand. A classic example of
Content-centered design is problematic for several extrinsic feedback is the statement, “Incorrect. Try again.”
reasons. The first is that all learners do not actually need It judges the response but is not connected in any
the same level of content delivery. Front-loading all specific way to the action or thinking the learner is
content to be read by all users, regardless of individual engaged in. It is completely extrinsic to the question.
differences, will always waste time for some portion of
the audience. Second, learners usually have little ability Intrinsic feedback is integrated seamlessly into the task
Visit alleninteractions.com/e-learning-demos to view this course. itself. A simple example of intrinsic feedback can be
Figure 14.A
Figure 14.B
Figure 15.C
With our founder’s experience starting more than 40 years ago, we’ve been
shaking up the learning world with innovative approaches and solutions for
progressive organizations. Since 1993, Allen Interactions has been creating
interactive custom learning experiences that fit organizational and business
needs — engaging, challenging, fun learning events driven by the best
instructional design — that help people retain and apply what they’ve learned.
WHAT WE DO
Visit alleninteractions.com and download the Performance Learning Filter Kit, for
access to our CCAF examples website and pre-recorded webinars.