A general perception among eLearning
designers is that eLearning should be interactive. It should contain
interactive functionality that involves learner, such as Click and Learn and
Drag and Drop type interactivities. It should contain quiz questions that
routinely check the learner’s understanding of the subject. If possible it
should contain animations, video clips and, if possible, game-type situations,
to get them excited.
Whilst all these are valid
requirements, and often used in eLearning courses across the world, they don’t
necessarily guarantee that the course you build would be instructionally sound.
It merely ensures that the learner is not passive and is forced to perform some
activity during their learning.
Also, these activities take time
to build and cost money. What if your organisation doesn’t have the required
budget to build rich media for your eLearning?
Well, here is good news: the
quality of your eLearning is not dependent on the media you use; it is about the
instructional strategies you employ. You can make a reasonably interesting
eLearning even using simple text & graphic screens.
This might come as quite
surprising revelation. How can one build engaging eLearning merely with static
screens?
Well, think of it like a good novel.
I’m sure we were all glued to JK Rowling, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, or even
Sidney Sheldon. One thing common to all these writers is that their books were
‘unputdownable’, meaning, they were so good that once we’re into a few pages,
we were unable to put it down without completing it.
Their books didn’t contain
pictures, animations, click and reveal activities, or 3-D models. Yet, I know
many who skipped their night sleep to finish their books.
Of course, we are not expected to
write the next international bestseller, but we can employ some of the
techniques these writers use to make our courses interesting. Here are some of
them:
Central Thread
Identify a central thread to your
content. What drives the idea? What is its single defining goal? For a sales
negotiation content, it is winning the deal. For a gas turbine maintenance
content, it is making the turbine run at its optimal efficiency. Find out what
drives your content, write it in an action verb, and then let this goal drive
your instructional design.
One Screen, One Thing
It’s tempting to pack a lot of
stuff into the screens, especially when we have only the text and graphic
option. Make sure that your screen deals with just one thing. How do we
determine it’s only one? Use the learning objectives. Break down the terminal
objectives down to one more level and you’ll be left with bare essential to be
covered in one screen. Whilst storyboarding, it may feel like that the screen
does not contain enough material, but that’s okay. To the learner, it would be
enough to consume at one go.
Tell Stories
We all love stories. The
necessity and the ability to tell stories has dominated human evolution for
thousands of years. From cave paintings to virtual reality gears, our culture
is dominated by stories. Though you don’t have to write the next Ramayana, think
of various ways you can convert the material into small, interesting stories.
You might scoff at it by saying not all topics lend themselves to storytelling.
For instance, negotiation skills can have a lot of scope for creating stories,
but a gas turbine maintenance cannot. Well, remember this: solving a problem is
a lesson, whereas a character solving a problem is a story. If testing gas
turbine’s heat level is a lesson, you can bring in Tom, a supervisor in a power
plant, who has a problem in his plant and needs to check the turbine. You can
also add stakes to the situation, i.e. if Tom doesn’t bring down the heat level
in the turbine, it will lead to power outage and there is a major hospital
that’s dependent on this plant. Voila, now you have a story! Now, the learner
is curious to know how Tom ‘will solve this problem’. Remember, you need your
SME’s support for this strategy and if you explain the benefits, few SMEs will
object to this.
Write Clear, Precise Sentences
Often the message is muddled in
unclear, passive sentences that hide the meaning. You need to flesh out what
you want to say and say it clearly. Thankfully, you don’t need to ‘creatively
think’ how to do this, as the rules for good writing are already well
established. Write active sentences, write action-verbs, use verbs and not
their noun forms, write short sentences, etc. Pick up any book on writing and
that will tell you how to write easily readable and engaging sentences. If
you’re not the book-type, Google ‘Better writing skills’ and it will offer
thousands of ideas that will blow your mind.
Focus on action, not knowledge
Any learning is intended to make
people do something, or do something better. We often think training involves
imparting knowledge. It may be true of primary education, but for adult
learning, it is often about making them do something such as negotiate better,
maintain a power plant, comply with a specific law, etc. So shift your focus
from imparting knowledge to what the learner will ‘do at the end of the
learning.’ Think about this way: Instructional Design for Swimming. When you
have to teach someone to swim, you won’t focus much on theory. You would want
to throw the person onto water and start the teaching!
Treat every training like a
swimming lesson; focus on DO, and not on LEARN. Your content will automatically
become interesting.
Conclusion
Next time you are asked to build
eLearning with limited media budget, think of these suggestions. If you believe
the power is in the hands of the instructional designer, you will be able to
come up with many more ideas to create interesting and engaging eLearning.
All the best.
