Learning Leaders: Allison Rossett on Designing Engaging eLearning

Allison Rossett,a Guild Master and professor emerita of educational technology at San DiegoState University, consults on learning and technology for corporations andgovernment agencies. She’s also a prolific author and she keynotes and speaksat conferences all over the world, most recently at DevLearn.

Guild Master AllisonRossett

I recently spoke with Allison about the future of eLearningand the importance of both training and performance support. The interview hasbeen edited for length and clarity; the first part of the interview appeared November 28, 2016.

Pamela S. Hogle (PH): There’s a lot of pressure tomake eLearning engaging, of course, but also mobile-friendly, accessible, easyto update. Seems like a lot to ask of instructional designers (IDs). How dothey reconcile all of that?

Allison Rossett (AR): First thing, of course: IDsneed to be paid more because so many requirements are being piled on theirnarrow shoulders! (Kidding … sort of.)

It’s a lot to ask, I agree. But I don’t think these thingsare oppositional; I think they suit each other marvelously.

Let’s use an example like wine selection, or productselection for a salesperson. If you’re learning to select better wines, oryou’re learning to be a better salesperson, why can’t a whole lot of what youneed to be good at what you do—why can’t it be on demand, accessible?

Go online to the App Store, and put in “wine.” There’s amillion things to help you be better at it. And when I was working with aclient recently, on the skills of salespeople, they had many, many smalltraining modules, where they had to practice things and recognize errors.That’s very classic training to memory and to mind, heart, and belly. But thenthey had a ton of checklists, and things you could pull up and share withcustomers—much more performance-support oriented.

So I don’t see these things as oppositional. I think online,via iPads or phones—I think that’s just the right place to put things. You hiresomebody to be a new consultant or new salesperson or even a new driver, or anew insurance adjuster, you give that new employee a device that’s alreadyloaded with many of these tools. Then your job, if you’re bringing them in, isto orient them, teach them to access these assets, to know what assets resideon their system, and to use them; use them like crazy. That’s so much betterthan bringing them in for three weeks and trying to pour things into theirhead. Who’s going to remember all that?

PH: A lot of this assumes constant online access,which isn’t true everywhere in this country, much less globally. Are we leavingpeople behind?

AR: Of course we are. I think digital gap is a bigissue. But if we’re talking about workplace productivity, we could sit here andtalk about the problem of the developing world or the undeveloped world, andyou’re right, it’s a big problem. But you know, they have access to phones.They’re “leapfrogging” technology, and they have access to phones. So there arepossibilities.

I guess the main thing I would say for the people who read LearningSolutions is: Know what you’re dealing with. Do not assume thatevery time you take on a project and bring technology to bear on it that it’san opportunity to do fabulous, groovy things. Instead, spend some energy andtime knowing for whom you are developing and not create frustration forthem, but use what they have. Make it match their circumstances. Don’t besurprised by bandwidth issues or by lack of devices. Keep it simple. Again,less is more. They will appreciate if you are keen on what their issues andproblems are, rather than frustrating them by their not being able to enjoy thewonders of the animation you’ve produced.

On engaging learners

You asked me a question about engagement, and I think that’sa really big challenge. I recently reviewed some online programs, and I thought,“You would have to put a gun to myhead to get me to complete this program.” This is brutal stuff. So, Ithink it’s really important that we talk about engagement.

I want to say some of the things that I think we need to do.It’s a bit of a laundry list, but it’s so critical. As we move toward moretechnology, one of the great benefits—and one of the sharper threats—in this isthat they [learners] get to decide. They can decide in, or they can decide out.So we’ve got to make it compelling, engaging.

• I think it has to begin with knowing theirproblem. You can’t just be vanilla off the shelf. It [eLearning] has to reflecttheir pain points and their opportunities. They can’t look at it and say, “Well,that was built for doctors, and I am a retirement specialist or a truck driver.”There are ways to do this. You can keep many of the common messages, but you’vegot to infuse at least some things that reflect that you know them, you knowfrom whence they come.
• You have to explain why—why are they looking atthis, why are they engaged with this topic? Put it in a context. What’s in itfor me? What’s in it for the organization? It matters. I can’t tell you howoften that doesn’t happen. I don’t mean spend an hour on that, but say why weare there. Use stories. Use the voices of real people. I don’t mean people theyknow, but people who are also retirement specialists or truck drivers ornurses. Include their commentary on why they handled it that way, why theyapproached the audit that way, why the expert nurse managed as he did, why he askeda doctor to take a look at this patient as opposed to handling it himself.
• Set up opportunities for learners to dosomething relevant, to do something that smells and feels like the real worldto them.
• Make it thought-provoking. So often, I look atprograms, and I think, “This is so obvious.” I’ll give you an example. I waslooking at a program on HIPAA. It was compliance. I thought, “Well, OK, I amgoing to take the test without doing the program.” I got 100 percent.Ridiculous. Who doesn’t know that you’re not supposed to leave files lying allover the desk? Who doesn’t know that?
  I call it the “low-hanging fruit syndrome.” They just teach the most obvious;they don’t go after the things where people have problems. Which is why manypeople don’t really like these programs: They don’t solve their problems.
• Don’t get them lost. One of the things that’sreally critical is guidance systems that tell people where they are, where togo next, and how much more they have to go. It’s a really good thing. Noticehow more and more of the things we read tell us how long it’s going to take usto complete them? Don’t you like that?

References

Rossett, Allison.First Things Fast: A Handbook for Performance Analysis, 2^ndedition. Hoboken, NJ: Pfeiffer/Wiley, 2009.

Rossett, Allison, and Antonia Chan. Engaging with the new eLearning. Adobe Systems, 2008.
https://www.adobe.com/resources/elearning/pdfs/95010205_elearningengage_wp_ue.pdf

Rossett, Allison,and Lisa Schafer. Job Aids & Performance Support: Moving from Knowledge inthe Classroom to Knowledge Everywhere. Hoboken, NJ: Pfeiffer/Wiley, 2006.
Associated website and tool: https://www.colletandschafer.com/perfsupp/