Singletasking & Learning Online

The theme of distraction in online learning seems to be popping up all over.  In fact, distraction & productivity in general are hot topics in our newly resource constrained work environments.  Volume has negatively impacted both work/life balance and quality lately.

Lifehacker posted this article on singletasking, the practice of doing one thing at a time.  The conclusion: do one thing at a time, and you'll do more.  You'll do it more accurately, too.  Multitasking impacts overall output as well as quality. 

Personally, I'm a big fan of check lists.  But, I get interrupted frequently by co-workers who have called me the Queen of PowerPoint and a SharePoint Ninja.  Flattery seems to really work on me.

As a designer of all things online and learning, I love the idea of singletasking. As a compliance learning developer, I really, really love singletasking.  As a human, I see the potential and the pitfalls.  The biggest risk? Sticking to singletasking.  In the connected environment of online learning, we compete not just with the urge to multitask.  We also compete with job and life tasks that learners may see as more important. 

What can we do?  Keep online learning simple, short, interactive, & compelling. If you just authored a 65 minute page turner, figure out how to cut it down, chunk it or chuck it.

We can also set clear expectations for success and attention.  In longer, multi-week courses, I will give learners tips on online learning.  These include ways to minimize distractions in the office or at home.  My favorites are "shut down your email" and "wear a silly thinking cap so that your 3 year old knows you are studying."  I like the second one the best -- it sets a great example!

Distraction & Online Learning

If you're making your classroom virtual, where your learners can enjoy email alerts, chat sessions, MafiaWars, and FarmVille, you are in for several big challenges.  One is that the Internet can be way more interesting than your eLearning content.  Welcome to learning in a connected environment!

A recent Lifehacker post about clock watching and distraction had me wondering -- are there eLearning distractions that are less than obvious?  Is a clock ticking down the time left in the eLearning course/section just as bad as MafiaWars and poorly designed content?  Could a side bar menu a la Articulate and Captivate be a detractor from your learning goals?

In short -- yes. In fact, Ruth Clark's work on learning efficiency suggests that anything extra negatively impacts learning outcomes. 

However, adult learners like to know in advance how to manage their time, and they also like an overview of the content.

Here are my tips for minimizing distraction:

1. Let learners know in the course/section description and at the beginning of the course/section how much time they need to set aside.
2. Include a course menu that collapses and a great introduction screen.  Learners can look at the menu, if they want.  But, it isn't distracting their attention from the actual content you want them to learn.
3. Block out as much as you can for as long as you can.  Set your player to open the size of the learner's screen. 
4. Prevent learners from playing training in the background and never really absorbing the content.  Insert interactions to "auto-pause" the content every 2-3 minutes.  You can also use the "next" button every so often to stop the content. 
5. If the learner needs to come back later, they can pick up where they left off.  Use "resume" settings. 
6. Learners can usually hold tight for five minutes without interactions.  Create smaller sections or chunks of material.  You can create a series of 5 min sections that learners click & launch separately.
7. Create activities where learners need to go out to the Internet such as scavenger hunts with fill-in-the-blank assessments or get social with peer-to-peer research challenges in a discussion thread associated with your eLearning.

Have some ideas, too?  What do you do?  Please, add a comment with your solutions.