Her effortless writing style makes this book an easy to read and easy to apply field guide.
If you are at all involved in creating learning experiences, tread this book!
Showing posts with label eLearning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eLearning. Show all posts
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Evidence Based Learning Design and a Practical Approach
Ruth Colvin Clark is known for her meta-study to on the ground approach to writing. Her most recent book is the most concise and useful that I've read so far. She busts learning myths with real studies and takes the work out of mapping research to practice with useful guidelines and checklists.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Content Development Tips: Empower SMEs as Partners & (Co)Designers
I would love to think that I have a unique view of program development. Maybe. I have a program that I use with SMEs as I coach them through creating eLearning, ILT, and instructional videos. I have a worksheet for each step.
I start with an open mind and push away all previous content. Most SMEs hate this part. However, this process gets us to the most efficient learning: lowest audience seat time (a.k.a. Cheeks-in-Seats) and lowest audience mental energy (Cognitive Load) for the desired outcomes.
Check out my basic overview and tell me how your process is similar or different.
1. Business Outcomes
What, in business terms, will be different as a result of this training? How will we measure success? What metrics need to improve? Can we measure them today? If not, what do we need to set up in order to measure them? In other words, if the CEO asks us what the company got in exchange for our time on this project, what are we going to show? Why did we pick our outcomes? What are the results?
2. Learning Objectives
What will our audience be able to do after they leave the program? Learning objectives are very formulaic. They have an action verb, an environment, tools, and measurable standards. I avoid the "action" words understand and know. By avoid, I mean ban. We need specific and measurable action words like identify, match, or judge.
3. Activities and Assessments
I try to create one learning activity for the audience to practice what they learned and one test question or test activity for each objective.
4. Content Outline
Content is a scope creep black hole, which is why I don't lead with it. What does the audience need to know to successfully complete the Activities & Assessments? That is the only content we need. I use my objectives as bumper-lanes: SMEs bump up against them less painfully then bumping up against me.
5. Storyboarding
This is a much cheaper and saner way to work.
I shuffle the objectives into a sane order, and I think about your audience. What are they bringing to the table? They can absorb 7 +/- 2 new things at a time before needing a serious break to practice what they learned. If we are teaching someone who hasn't used a computer before about PCs, turning on the machine is at least 1 thing of the allowed 7 +/- 2. Overload they audience, and they will be incapable of remembering anything. An audience can only track 1 or 2 tasks at a time. Period. Incoming email is probably 1 tasks of the two if you are in the eLearning biz. The longest they can sit put & learn without distraction, supervision, or boredom is less than 5 mins.
A storyboard needs to include a box for the learning objective it addresses, a box for what the audience sees, the player controls, a box for narration/script, and a box for assets (the graphics and other media we need to make the screen happen). I include a box for numbering the page. This template will vary depending on the development tool. I make one and copy it. Most programs of about 15 mins need about 20 pages, tops.
I use visual thinking create a storyboard, and I try to include a fun plot or organizing logic. I number the pages when we are done, in case we decide that the ordering needs to change.
This part is very empowering for SMEs who are technophobes or who are not "good with graphics." Advanced stick-figuring is something anyone can master is about 2 mins. I use highlighters to make arrows indicating animation. SMEs let go of bad ideas more easily if they didn't spend 20 hours working on a slide that turns out to be irrelevant over-kill. Plus, they have lots of input into the output, which helps set expectations up front... which saves working relationships and time equally.
If you are a good coach and they want a coach, SMEs will now think you are 1) sane, 2) fun, & 3) easy to work with. They will also think they did all the work.
6. End User Feedback
I like to take the storyboard on tour before investing on the real deal. I want to talk to stakeholders, partners, AND ACTUAL END USERS.
7. Redesign Storyboard
I only like to make high value changes at this point. Some SMEs will quibble about the finer points of taxonomy and nomenclature.
8. Develop
I open PPT or whatever tool we're using and have the best graphics experience of my life. The SME & I already know what we need form ClipArt! We can focus on making the screens look great without having the pressure of composing in what is really a development tool anyway. We all know approximately what the output needs to look like. Sometimes, I'll have the SME take the first pass and give them feedback/redesign tips.
This. Is. PPT. Nirvana.
Record audio. If we are using Jing, we need a hot signal on your mic, and that means the audience will hear a mouse sneezing in the next conference room. At least it's only 5 mins. Or 5 x how many ever times we re-record. Not so bad to do after hours.
For longer programs & eLearning, I prefer the Rode Podcaster. The mic is awesome, but the signal is weak. I use Audacity to boost the levels. Long ago, a hotter mic meant I had to reduce noise in Audacity, making me sound like C3PO's girlfriend. I'll take the boost method and the awesome sound isolation of the Rode Podcaster any day.
Oh, and I drink warm water to avoid smacky sounds. No tea, coffee, or cold water. I use headphones to take eLearning, and hearing smacky noises on headphones is... gross.
9. Publish/Integrate
I publish to my clients' favorite LMS compatible platform (I prefer AICC), or publish the video in whatever format their Intranet will take without being hateful.
For LMS integration, having a flow chart with swim lanes on hand is nice. SMEs really don't know (and likely don't want to know) everything that goes into LMS integration & testing. Yes, testing.
Writing assignment rules can be wither very easy (everyone!) or very painful (sales people whose first name ends with a vowel or engineers who use paper towls instead of the hand drier). I ask the LMS team for a rules tree or something that I can use with SMEs. I talk to the leadership of our audience to make sure they agree with our assignment criteria. They are the ones paying for the time we are holding their valuable workers hostage. They want input.
Establishing what info we can get back out of the LMS is key as well. Question-by-question data may be a problem, but we can get a completion rate. We can usually get a list of overdue or nearly-due people. Handy for nagging & compliance.
For Intranets, I find a job aid for publishing video content pretty useful. This allows SMEs to own minor updates with minimal support from moi. I also give them a heads up: your content is unsearchable, so account for that intelligently with great keywords and some SEO. Unless you have YouTube for enterprise, this will not be a short job aid.
10. Announce
Market! Our audience will not listen to us, mere learning gurus and SMEs, and complete their training unless we hold the keys to their next promotion. I contact the communications team of the leaders we just talked to about assignment rules. Chances are, they are the ones who will write the heads-up email for our audience. I flip the switch on assignment rules a couple hours after this email goes out.
Some other marketing channels are internal social networks, Intranet banners & "ads," and posters. I had a ton of fun pretending to be any of 4 super heroes on a company microblog once. It was a blast.... a corney, attention-getting, blast.
If our video is in place to help the SME stop "answering the same question 20 times a week, I wonder... who asks them over and over? The people who email them! If this is a short Intranet video stuck out in deep space without tags or anything to call it to the audiences attention, there is one sure-fire method to reach this target audience: email signatures. I help the SME create a clever catch phrase and a link. I want the audience to know the content is useful, quick, and painless. For example, "Click here to learn how to talk to Twitter trolls in brand voice without sounding like a marketing clone... in 5 mins or less."
11. Support
Customer service. It happens. Plan for it. Staff for it. Brace for it. Embrace it... even when it's a freakin' pop-up blocker on a browser IT and the LMS vendor never intended. A 2-5% failure rate is normal. If we are using agents, we give them a heads up about volume as well as information for troubleshooting and their escalation points. Also, we try to buy them pizza, candy, or puppies. They deserve it.
12. Evaluate
We ask for feedback from our audience. My standard survey has 5 questions: 3 Likerts on ease, length, and relevance; one open ended on how they will synthesize what they learned; and one open ended question on what we should change in the program. I prepare SMEs for polarized opinions, and I advise that they take everything with a grain of salt, good or bad. Ego and self-loathing are equally annoying.
Not even close to the end of evaluation! (But here is where it usually comes to a grinding halt).
Next, I want to look at the assessments. In the training environment, could our audience perform what we set out to teach them?
Next, we measure to see if the audience is doing what we taught them to do when it really counts: on the job.
Finally, we tie it all to time and cost, and we go back to our business outcomes. I make a 1-2 page dashboard style report out that shows before & after. Now, we can brag about results! We share what we learned, too. We talk about what we discovered during the process and what we 'll do differently in subsequent programs. This highlights how we grew and will grow.
Whew!
Now, my SME is a learning "expert." I am level 2 support. The line outside of my cube is shorter. life it good.
I start with an open mind and push away all previous content. Most SMEs hate this part. However, this process gets us to the most efficient learning: lowest audience seat time (a.k.a. Cheeks-in-Seats) and lowest audience mental energy (Cognitive Load) for the desired outcomes.
Check out my basic overview and tell me how your process is similar or different.
1. Business Outcomes
What, in business terms, will be different as a result of this training? How will we measure success? What metrics need to improve? Can we measure them today? If not, what do we need to set up in order to measure them? In other words, if the CEO asks us what the company got in exchange for our time on this project, what are we going to show? Why did we pick our outcomes? What are the results?
2. Learning Objectives
What will our audience be able to do after they leave the program? Learning objectives are very formulaic. They have an action verb, an environment, tools, and measurable standards. I avoid the "action" words understand and know. By avoid, I mean ban. We need specific and measurable action words like identify, match, or judge.
3. Activities and Assessments
I try to create one learning activity for the audience to practice what they learned and one test question or test activity for each objective.
4. Content Outline
Content is a scope creep black hole, which is why I don't lead with it. What does the audience need to know to successfully complete the Activities & Assessments? That is the only content we need. I use my objectives as bumper-lanes: SMEs bump up against them less painfully then bumping up against me.
5. Storyboarding
This is a much cheaper and saner way to work.
I shuffle the objectives into a sane order, and I think about your audience. What are they bringing to the table? They can absorb 7 +/- 2 new things at a time before needing a serious break to practice what they learned. If we are teaching someone who hasn't used a computer before about PCs, turning on the machine is at least 1 thing of the allowed 7 +/- 2. Overload they audience, and they will be incapable of remembering anything. An audience can only track 1 or 2 tasks at a time. Period. Incoming email is probably 1 tasks of the two if you are in the eLearning biz. The longest they can sit put & learn without distraction, supervision, or boredom is less than 5 mins.
A storyboard needs to include a box for the learning objective it addresses, a box for what the audience sees, the player controls, a box for narration/script, and a box for assets (the graphics and other media we need to make the screen happen). I include a box for numbering the page. This template will vary depending on the development tool. I make one and copy it. Most programs of about 15 mins need about 20 pages, tops.
I use visual thinking create a storyboard, and I try to include a fun plot or organizing logic. I number the pages when we are done, in case we decide that the ordering needs to change.
This part is very empowering for SMEs who are technophobes or who are not "good with graphics." Advanced stick-figuring is something anyone can master is about 2 mins. I use highlighters to make arrows indicating animation. SMEs let go of bad ideas more easily if they didn't spend 20 hours working on a slide that turns out to be irrelevant over-kill. Plus, they have lots of input into the output, which helps set expectations up front... which saves working relationships and time equally.
If you are a good coach and they want a coach, SMEs will now think you are 1) sane, 2) fun, & 3) easy to work with. They will also think they did all the work.
6. End User Feedback
I like to take the storyboard on tour before investing on the real deal. I want to talk to stakeholders, partners, AND ACTUAL END USERS.
7. Redesign Storyboard
I only like to make high value changes at this point. Some SMEs will quibble about the finer points of taxonomy and nomenclature.
8. Develop
I open PPT or whatever tool we're using and have the best graphics experience of my life. The SME & I already know what we need form ClipArt! We can focus on making the screens look great without having the pressure of composing in what is really a development tool anyway. We all know approximately what the output needs to look like. Sometimes, I'll have the SME take the first pass and give them feedback/redesign tips.
This. Is. PPT. Nirvana.
Record audio. If we are using Jing, we need a hot signal on your mic, and that means the audience will hear a mouse sneezing in the next conference room. At least it's only 5 mins. Or 5 x how many ever times we re-record. Not so bad to do after hours.
For longer programs & eLearning, I prefer the Rode Podcaster. The mic is awesome, but the signal is weak. I use Audacity to boost the levels. Long ago, a hotter mic meant I had to reduce noise in Audacity, making me sound like C3PO's girlfriend. I'll take the boost method and the awesome sound isolation of the Rode Podcaster any day.
Oh, and I drink warm water to avoid smacky sounds. No tea, coffee, or cold water. I use headphones to take eLearning, and hearing smacky noises on headphones is... gross.
9. Publish/Integrate
I publish to my clients' favorite LMS compatible platform (I prefer AICC), or publish the video in whatever format their Intranet will take without being hateful.
For LMS integration, having a flow chart with swim lanes on hand is nice. SMEs really don't know (and likely don't want to know) everything that goes into LMS integration & testing. Yes, testing.
Writing assignment rules can be wither very easy (everyone!) or very painful (sales people whose first name ends with a vowel or engineers who use paper towls instead of the hand drier). I ask the LMS team for a rules tree or something that I can use with SMEs. I talk to the leadership of our audience to make sure they agree with our assignment criteria. They are the ones paying for the time we are holding their valuable workers hostage. They want input.
Establishing what info we can get back out of the LMS is key as well. Question-by-question data may be a problem, but we can get a completion rate. We can usually get a list of overdue or nearly-due people. Handy for nagging & compliance.
For Intranets, I find a job aid for publishing video content pretty useful. This allows SMEs to own minor updates with minimal support from moi. I also give them a heads up: your content is unsearchable, so account for that intelligently with great keywords and some SEO. Unless you have YouTube for enterprise, this will not be a short job aid.
10. Announce
Market! Our audience will not listen to us, mere learning gurus and SMEs, and complete their training unless we hold the keys to their next promotion. I contact the communications team of the leaders we just talked to about assignment rules. Chances are, they are the ones who will write the heads-up email for our audience. I flip the switch on assignment rules a couple hours after this email goes out.
Some other marketing channels are internal social networks, Intranet banners & "ads," and posters. I had a ton of fun pretending to be any of 4 super heroes on a company microblog once. It was a blast.... a corney, attention-getting, blast.
If our video is in place to help the SME stop "answering the same question 20 times a week, I wonder... who asks them over and over? The people who email them! If this is a short Intranet video stuck out in deep space without tags or anything to call it to the audiences attention, there is one sure-fire method to reach this target audience: email signatures. I help the SME create a clever catch phrase and a link. I want the audience to know the content is useful, quick, and painless. For example, "Click here to learn how to talk to Twitter trolls in brand voice without sounding like a marketing clone... in 5 mins or less."
11. Support
Customer service. It happens. Plan for it. Staff for it. Brace for it. Embrace it... even when it's a freakin' pop-up blocker on a browser IT and the LMS vendor never intended. A 2-5% failure rate is normal. If we are using agents, we give them a heads up about volume as well as information for troubleshooting and their escalation points. Also, we try to buy them pizza, candy, or puppies. They deserve it.
12. Evaluate
We ask for feedback from our audience. My standard survey has 5 questions: 3 Likerts on ease, length, and relevance; one open ended on how they will synthesize what they learned; and one open ended question on what we should change in the program. I prepare SMEs for polarized opinions, and I advise that they take everything with a grain of salt, good or bad. Ego and self-loathing are equally annoying.
Not even close to the end of evaluation! (But here is where it usually comes to a grinding halt).
Next, I want to look at the assessments. In the training environment, could our audience perform what we set out to teach them?
Next, we measure to see if the audience is doing what we taught them to do when it really counts: on the job.
Finally, we tie it all to time and cost, and we go back to our business outcomes. I make a 1-2 page dashboard style report out that shows before & after. Now, we can brag about results! We share what we learned, too. We talk about what we discovered during the process and what we 'll do differently in subsequent programs. This highlights how we grew and will grow.
Whew!
Now, my SME is a learning "expert." I am level 2 support. The line outside of my cube is shorter. life it good.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Cog Research Implications for eLearning: Multi-tasking, CPU Use, and Learning [UPDATE]
eLearning turning into hamburger flipping? Check the box training design is crazy-making enough. Don't be an eLearning zombie-maker. Instead of eating brain power, use your cognitive research knowledge for good.
...zombie learners.
Brrraaaaaiiiiiiinnnnssssss!
- Stop multi-tasking. You are bad at it.
- Your brain's system resources are maxed.
- Your brain runs on exercise. Fuel it.
- Your brain works with pictures.
...zombie learners.
Brrraaaaaiiiiiiinnnnssssss!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Blogs for Learning
Wondering how to connect with your learning audience through blogs? Many of the principles of good news, marketing, or customer service blogs can apply to your blog. Although good journalistic writing is a plus, that alone isn't going to make you a trusted blog superstar.
You have to work on your writing skills as well as create community and trust. Trust and credibility aren't just about credentials. It is also about your personality. Think of it this way: Professors Snape and McGonagall in Harry Potter both have excellent credentials. If they each had a blog, which would be more credible? To pump up your credibility, be very responsive and use video or audio to help establish a good relationship with your audience. Make sure you use positive body language and tone in your multimedia.
This how to article gives some very good advice that will also lead to good credibility:
1. Be authentic
2. Be transparent
3. Get inside your readers’ minds
4. Solicit feedback
5. Don’t be offensive or take big public risks
Click here to check out Buzz about the above blog post. If you think that blogs are not great learning tools, check this out: the blog serves as a thought prompt, and the community members are sharing their own experience and perspectives with each other in response to the blog. In a learning environment, you may want to require and assess comments for relevance and quality. "Hey. Nice tips!" isn't going help anyone learn very much.
The conversation after this blog is an example of exploration or informal learning. Following up with a formal activity for learners like creating guidelines for a good blog and assessing three very different blogs can be a great way of teaching the new media literacy skill of judgment and modeling good blogging.
I've used blogs for teaching good research practices in art history. Blogs have feeds, and I can send all the feeds to one tab in my Google Reader -- which is nice for me. Peer support teams can subscribe to feeds where ever they like -- which is nice for them.
Blogs as an open or closed journaling tool allow students to ask meaningful questions of their peers or for the instructor to offer resources the student may want to consider. Students can blog from their email, phones, or on the blog web site, which is very flexible. They can text notes from the library or copy links into a new post. Make sure to answer the "what's in it for me?" question. You'll need to include links to possible blog tools and instructions for sharing their feed with you and their peers.
I've included a bit of text from one of my assignments that uses blogs to help students learn good research habits and think about one issue over time (instead of the night before the paper is due).
1) Blog your research activities during Weeks 2-6 of the semester with at least two entries and three resource citations per week.
2) In each entry, include a brief summary of the quality, content, and value of resources. Include careful citations according to the Chicago Manual of Style for the Humanities.
You have to work on your writing skills as well as create community and trust. Trust and credibility aren't just about credentials. It is also about your personality. Think of it this way: Professors Snape and McGonagall in Harry Potter both have excellent credentials. If they each had a blog, which would be more credible? To pump up your credibility, be very responsive and use video or audio to help establish a good relationship with your audience. Make sure you use positive body language and tone in your multimedia.
This how to article gives some very good advice that will also lead to good credibility:
1. Be authentic
2. Be transparent
3. Get inside your readers’ minds
4. Solicit feedback
5. Don’t be offensive or take big public risks
Click here to check out Buzz about the above blog post. If you think that blogs are not great learning tools, check this out: the blog serves as a thought prompt, and the community members are sharing their own experience and perspectives with each other in response to the blog. In a learning environment, you may want to require and assess comments for relevance and quality. "Hey. Nice tips!" isn't going help anyone learn very much.
The conversation after this blog is an example of exploration or informal learning. Following up with a formal activity for learners like creating guidelines for a good blog and assessing three very different blogs can be a great way of teaching the new media literacy skill of judgment and modeling good blogging.
I've used blogs for teaching good research practices in art history. Blogs have feeds, and I can send all the feeds to one tab in my Google Reader -- which is nice for me. Peer support teams can subscribe to feeds where ever they like -- which is nice for them.
Blogs as an open or closed journaling tool allow students to ask meaningful questions of their peers or for the instructor to offer resources the student may want to consider. Students can blog from their email, phones, or on the blog web site, which is very flexible. They can text notes from the library or copy links into a new post. Make sure to answer the "what's in it for me?" question. You'll need to include links to possible blog tools and instructions for sharing their feed with you and their peers.
I've included a bit of text from one of my assignments that uses blogs to help students learn good research habits and think about one issue over time (instead of the night before the paper is due).
Research Blog and Literature Review
Collect information about possible sources for your midterm research paper and write a literature review summarizing at least ten citations from the current literature.
Your blog for this course is a research journal and collaboration tool that helps you:
1) manage your research data and time,
2) receive feedback and suggestions from your instructor and peers, and
3) practice using your new knowledge and vocabulary each week through writing about a subject you choose.
What's a blog? Check out this video:
What's a blog? Check out this video:
1) Blog your research activities during Weeks 2-6 of the semester with at least two entries and three resource citations per week.
2) In each entry, include a brief summary of the quality, content, and value of resources. Include careful citations according to the Chicago Manual of Style for the Humanities.
3) Use your topics and vocabulary for each week to discuss your research topic in one brief paragraph.
4) Compose a Literature Review (summary) of at least ten of the top sources that you intend to use for the Midterm Research Paper.
4) Compose a Literature Review (summary) of at least ten of the top sources that you intend to use for the Midterm Research Paper.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Dangerous Learning
I heard recently from a feed about a great book called Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do).
With supervision, doing dangerous experiments teaches not only great science and allows for discovery. It also teaches judgment and safety skills. If no one teaches you how to be safe before you experiment with concrete and speed or a hairpin and electrical sockets, you're going to the ER. Safe experimentation is a really important life skill!
The key to it being really effective learning is the doing.
I'm huge on interactivity and constructivism. Some things, like learning to drive a forklift, are best learned with the real deal. However, other things... like software simulation for example... are easily replicated in the online environment. Drag and drop activities and picture hunts with roll over information hidden in them are two more examples of activity in an online, stand-alone training.
Here is a sample I did a couple months ago. (Click here to download.). Open this with any browser.
What's working? You see it; you do it. Seeing is better than telling, and doing is better than seeing. The repetition of seeing & doing defiantly helps for novice learners.
With supervision, doing dangerous experiments teaches not only great science and allows for discovery. It also teaches judgment and safety skills. If no one teaches you how to be safe before you experiment with concrete and speed or a hairpin and electrical sockets, you're going to the ER. Safe experimentation is a really important life skill!
The key to it being really effective learning is the doing.
I'm huge on interactivity and constructivism. Some things, like learning to drive a forklift, are best learned with the real deal. However, other things... like software simulation for example... are easily replicated in the online environment. Drag and drop activities and picture hunts with roll over information hidden in them are two more examples of activity in an online, stand-alone training.
Here is a sample I did a couple months ago. (Click here to download.). Open this with any browser.
What's working? You see it; you do it. Seeing is better than telling, and doing is better than seeing. The repetition of seeing & doing defiantly helps for novice learners.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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!
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!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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:
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:
- Let learners know in the course/section description and at the beginning of the course/section how much time they need to set aside.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- If the learner needs to come back later, they can pick up where they left off. Use "resume" settings.
- 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.
- 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.
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