10 Powerful Principles

for Impactful e-Learning

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Introduction

Instructional designers of e-learning face a constant challenge of how to create learning experiences that actually make a difference. Too many of the accepted and easy approaches result in e-learning courses that fail to motivate, engage, or empower learners. Sophisticated simulations and technically complex designs seem out of reach for many instructional designers.

While much can be accomplished in sophisticated development environments, rarely is it the technology that is actually responsible for the impact. Rather, it’s the powerful design ideas that are grounded on some relatively practical and achievable principles.

These ten powerful and practical principles should be implemented in designing e-learning solutions at any level of complexity to create experiences that are Meaningful, Memorable, Motivational, and create lasting performance change. (They are listed in no particular order.)

 

01 Don't list formal learning objectives

Learning objectives are an essential element to inform instructional designers in coming up with meaningful interactions and valid evaluation measures. However, the presentation of these formal statements to set the stage for learning in an individualized module is, in many cases, useless. Few learners will read them meaningfully, and those who do can have difficulty making sense of the overly specific and technical language used to craft formal objectives. Yet, it’s vitally important to communicate the intent of the learning objectives. Instead of these formal, overt, and easily ignorable statements, communicate to learners in terms they understand and value—express the “What’s in it for me?” (WIFM) in conversational language—and use imagery, media, and compelling storytelling to highlight the intended performance outcome of the training in a way that arouses curiosity.

ACTION

Communicate the anticipated outcomes as concisely, clearly, and personally as you can.

02 Let the learners take control

Learning requires intention and effort. When e-learning interactivity requires nothing more of learners than to thoughtlessly following a narrowly defined path as a passive observer, it is unlikely that any personal change will occur. When learners make no choices decisions mean nothing; consequences have no impact, and the lesson becomes something “to sit through.” In spite of our long-established training culture of tracking and enforcement, turning control over to learners will always increase engagement. This can be as simple as providing choices in the order to explore content, when to have interactions judged as complete, and even when to take tests. Be specific and rigorous about expectations, but then empower each learner to determine how best he or she can succeed.

ACTION

Maintain clear standards for mastery and completion, but put the learner in control of as many decisions as possible.

03 Design final interactions first

In almost all cases, an e-learning module should systematically build to a final valuable learning outcome. It is the culminating student challenge iteractions/simulations/evaluations) that most clearly embodies the hoped-for performance outcomes. Yet many designers misplace their most creative design energy by designing linearly, focusing so much on initial content presentation (that has relatively little impact), and then running out of time, money, or energy by the time they are ready to tackle the interactions that will actually make some difference. The literal presentation of information alone will have little significant impact on learning. The interactions will.

Start designing the end of an e-learning course first. Create activities that truly display performance change. By starting here in sketching and prototyping, you will apply your most productive and creative design efforts to the part of the lesson that matters most. And usually, you will discover that some of the content is unnecessary.

ACTION

Focus your initial design energy on interactivity.

04 Talk less, do more

Experience and analysis both tell us that learners don’t read a great deal of the text that appears on the screen―and what they do read is not read very effectively. It isn’t until a meaningful challenge is presented that learners engage in productive reading to create the need for learners to seek out information or knowledge necessary for success. That’s why many learners’ “best practice” is to skip through content as quickly as possible, find out what the questions are on the test, and then go back to the content—not to read it but to extract just a bit of information needed for that question. To counteract this tendency, try to get learners actively engaged in DOING something first. Don’t present content as the initial learning opportunity. Provide just enough text-based content to help learners get started. Let the learners decide when to explore text content more fully to gather information for a specific purpose.

ACTION

Engage learners immediately in action; let each learner navigate content as they choose to.

05 Create real-life experiences

“When learners complete interactions that suggest real-life behavior and gestures to achieve a concrete goal, they are more likely to remember and carry these actions to the job.”

Experience in all modes of training has proven how important specific, physical activities in during learning are for improving retention
and performance. This becomes a particular challenge in e-learning because the range of gestures available to the learner is so limited— learners can use the mouse to point at, click on, move a screen element, or use the keyboard to type single characters or words. As a result, much e-learning requires the learner to do little more than a series of meaningless gestures that add up to nothing. The potential of media is to create purpose―both functional and emotional. When learners complete interactions that suggest real-life behavior and gestures to achieve a concrete goal, they are more likely to remember and carry these actions to the job. This is the real win of creating simulations: practicing realistic behaviors in a goal-directed environment.

Experience in all modes of training has proven how important specific, physical activities in during learning are for improving retention and performance. This becomes a particular challenge in e-learning because the range of gestures available to the learner is so limited— learners can use the mouse to point at, click on, move a screen element, or use the keyboard to type single characters or words. As a result, much e-learning requires the learner to do little more than a series of meaningless gestures that add up to nothing. The potential of media is to create purpose―both functional and emotional. When learners complete interactions that suggest real-life behavior and gestures to achieve a concrete goal, they are more likely to remember and carry these actions to the job. This is the real win of creating simulations: practicing realistic behaviors in a goal-directed environment.

ACTION

Design challenges rooted in the real world that have concrete and meaningful outcomes.

06 Enable specific gestures

Many e-learning lessons are created in which
no more is required of learners than to perform generic gestures (e.g., click a, b, c, or d; click t or f) repeatedly. The problem with these interactions
is that success can be achieved even when the learners pay no attention to what they are doing. These interactions that demand no attention simply foster thoughtless clicking at the expense of meaning. Instead, craft your interactions, including even simple questions, to require focused, specific manipulation of meaningful, context-laden screen
elements. Better yet, make individual gestures build on each other to create specific outcomes that relate to problems the learner has experienced. Even if you are not building a full-blown simulation, design individual elements to suggest something real. Generic gestures provide no information to guide corrective feedback; the best you can do is judge “right” or “wrong.” Specific gestures provide explicit clues to help customize corrective feedback to each individual.

ACTION

Avoid reliance on arbitrary question- answering gestures; design specific, context-defined responses.

07 Don't be adversarial

In general, learning is rarely made to thrive in harsh, punitive environments. E-learning has the potential to create an empowering, non- judgmental sphere in which learners can safely and confidently experiment and make mistakes as they master new skills. This process of making and correcting errors is essential for learning. Designers often undermine this potential by unnecessarily creating conflict and an unnecessary adversarial tone associated with interactivity. This judgmental voice of the lesson establishes distrust and enforcement vulnerability as the overwhelming learner emotions. Think, for a moment, how unacceptable a live teacher who leads by judgment and ridicule is would be. Yet somehow, this is viewed as acceptable in e-learning. Instead, try to design your e-learning so its voice is with a helpful, empowering, and mentoring voice.

ACTION

Listen to the “voice” of your e-learning. Write to convey a culture of support, assistance, and collaboration instead of judgment and opposition.

08 Use context to create meaning

“Visual images are a crucial tool in establishing context. We process images more quickly and thoroughly than linear text.”

Generic or context-free learning presentations are hard to process meaningfully when learners do not already possess an understanding of the application and significance of the material. Learning can be enhanced significantly by presenting content in visual or narrative contexts that give clues to how new information or procedures relate to pre-existing knowledge, recognized problems or challenges, and meaningful application scenarios. Visual images are a crucial tool in establishing context. We process images more quickly and thoroughly than linear text. Use context-establishing backgrounds and images of what you are talking about. Use storytelling to build rich emotional context around the material you want to communicate. A narrative arc that tells a story, resolves a conflict, identifies people and personal needs and taps human emotions always enhances meaning.

Generic or context-free learning presentations
are hard to process meaningfully when learners
do not already possess an understanding of the application and significance of the material. Learning can be enhanced significantly by presenting content in visual or narrative contexts that give clues to how new information or procedures relate to pre-existing knowledge, recognized problems or challenges, and meaningful application scenarios. Visual images are a crucial
tool in establishing context. We process images more quickly and thoroughly than linear text. Use context-establishing backgrounds and images of what you are talking about. Use storytelling to build rich emotional context around the material you want to communicate. A narrative arc that tells a story, resolves a conflict, identifies people and personal needs and taps human emotions always enhances meaning.

ACTION

Use all of the design elements at your disposal to attach rich contextual significance to unfamiliar aspects of your message.

09 Avoid judging and scoring every interaction

Testing creates anxiety, even in skilled learners, and anxiety interferes with performance and attention. Yet too often, the preponderance of much e-learning interactivity centers most on testing and scoring. Too often, the point of each question is to assess whether the learner is “right” or “wrong,” not so much because that it serves any teaching purpose, but rather for fear that otherwise, the learner will not pay any attention. Unfortunately, focusing on being correct is a necessary part of  a final evaluation, but is far less important for learning. E-learning interactions don’t need to always be about getting the correct answer. In truth, interactivity for learning is improved when learners can experiment with multiple outcomes, testing a hypothesis, and even intentionally trying to create a “wrong” outcome. These important learning activities are discouraged when the focus is so firmly on testing and scoring.

 “E-learning interactions don’t need to always be about getting the correct answer.”
ACTION

Encourage trial and exploration in interactions.

10 Hold the learner accountable for learning

Consequences are powerful tools to focus attention and effort. Consequences are not superficial punishments but are impactful in communicating the outcome of undesired behaviors. When learners are not held accountable for their actions in learning (by being able to make progress in spite of failure, by being told the answer rather than having to figure something out, or by getting nothing more complex than “Correct” or “Incorrect” as feedback), they tend to coast through e-learning courses thoughtlessly, not needing to process lesson content meaningfully. Real-life consequences that are linked to the learners making meaningful choices help reinforce the tangible impact in the actual performance environment. Experiencing the results of failure is so much more impactful than a figurative slap on the wrist for a less-than-optimal choice.

ACTION

Embed real-life, significant consequences in feedback actions and messages and in each e-learning interaction’s judging logic.

Ethan Edwards

chief instructional strategist

@ethanaedwards

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Ethan Edwards draws from more than 30 years of industry experience as a learning experience designer and developer. He is responsible for the delivery of the internal and external training and communications that reflect Allen Interactions’ unique perspective on creating Meaningful, Memorable, and Motivational learning solutions backed by the best instructional design and latest technologies.

Ethan is the primary instructor for Allen Academy’s Certified Instructional Professional Program. In addition, he is an internationally recognized presenter on learner experience design and instructional design of e-learning, has written many e-books on creating effective e-learning, and is a frequent blogger. Ethan holds a master’s degree and significant doctoral work in educational psychology from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign.