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When Designing eLearning, Remember the “Inner Child”
“Ain’t nobody gottime for that!” Sweet Brown’s declaration during an interview after an apartmentfire in Oklahoma City quickly became an Internet sensation. You can findnumerous quotes and memes parroting this phrase, conveying dissatisfaction onany subject. How many people have uttered this exact phrase upon their initialreaction to an eLearning lesson?
Designingmeaningful and engaging lessons (for any form of delivery, including eLearning)is a task that every good instructional designer seeks to master. Teachinglower-school students is a privilege that quickly makes you realize that theapproach you take when conveying an idea is just as important as the ideaitself. An approach that I have found most successful is threefold:
- Be clear and concise
- Use visuals
- Excite the imagination.
Sincemigrating over to the “adult learning” spectrum, I’ve found this strategy to bejust as applicable.
Pruning
Dependingon the topic, designing quick and straightforward lessons can be a difficulttask. As instructional designers, we often allow the nature of the content todictate how we construct the delivery. If our content is long and boring, our eLearningproduct will most likely follow suit. With adult attention spans growing evershorter, we have grown more accustomed to the perception that something that requiresmore than 140 characters to express isn’t worth our time or effort.
I’m in noway advocating putting a 140-character limit on lessons, but I do feel that wecan do a better job of design, so that eLearning delivers the pertinent contentwithout the fluff. A pruning technique that I find helpful is cutting away fillerthat falls into the categories of:
1) Common knowledge
2) Over-explainedconcepts
3) Things that canbe conveyed visually
Usingvisuals is commonplace in instruction. What I find, however, is that the use ofvisuals is often more a space filler rather than a reinforcement for an idea. Withmy students, I learned that anytime I introduced a visual aid, whether apicture or prop, everyone’s attention immediately gravitated to that aid. Itwas almost effortless to keep their attention as I explained the concept. Conversely,I came to realize that the aid itself was just as important to the content asthe words. When using visuals for eLearning, I try to answer three questions:
1) Will the contentitself draw the learner in visually?
2) Are there anyconcepts that I can present through pictures?
3) Do the pictureshelp to reinforce the subject matter? Visuals should be partners with the text,guiding the learner to a contextual construction of the idea the words present.
Imagination
The most integral,and more than likely the most difficult, piece to the design process iscreating learning that stimulates the learner’s imagination. People areinherently drawn to things in which they can make a personal connection. I createda lesson using Curious George to teach Internet safety to a group of first- andsecond- grade students. I decided to use Curious George because I could use thestudents’ prior knowledge of the character to my advantage. The instant theysaw George, they instinctively made the connection between him and his penchantfor mischief. As they progressed through the lesson, they learned the keyconcepts about Internet safety by seeing what happened to George when he madepoor choices while using the Internet. Therefore, if they find themselvesfacing an Internet safety issue, they can easily think back to the decision Georgemade and the consequence of that decision.
The same approachis just as useful with adult learners. Think about your favorite joke, fairytale, or news event. I imagine you wouldn’t have much trouble, right now,without missing any of the major detail, in telling it to anyone who cared tolisten. The reason you easily remember it is because it has somehow made anemotional or conceptual connection.
