The 6 e’s of elearning – Part 1 by Brayley Pearce

Photo: Brayley Pearce

"Be guided through the elearning process with practical tips for L&D professionals and learning designers at each stage." according to Brayley Pearce, Instructional Designer.

In Part 1, we takes through engagement, emotion and empowerment in elearning.

Part 2 will complete the journey by discussing the learning environment, ways to excite learners and how to evaluate the course.

Photo: Sponge UK (blog)

E is for Engage  
Engage with learners to create a deeper, richer & more meaningful elearning experience

Imagine a dream elearning launch scenario…

The CEO is behind it, the finance department have signed it off and the subject matter experts (SMEs) and HR have all agreed to the content; The line-managers who’ll be responsible for overseeing the launch are behind the initiative.

But did anyone ask the learners? Really ask them?

As an instructional designer, with a background in business psychology, I firmly believe there’s great value in getting learners engaged with the process of creating elearning courses.
One of Knowles principles of adult learning (andragogy) is to get adults involved in the planning of their learning. Often, however, the first time learners engage with any workplace learning is when they sit down and begin the training.

A quick search on Google throws up thousands of results about the questions you should ‘ask yourself about the learners’ but precious little about how to actually work with your learners when designing elearning.
Each organisation’s learning strategies are as different as learners are from each other, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• Talk to the learners (not their managers)

Ask potential learners what they need to do their job better/quicker/more effectively. You may be surprised to find its not knowledge they need, but motivation, certain skills or another type of support.

Why bother? Training (elearning included) should be tailored to deliver what the learner actually needs, not what the organisation thinks they need.

• Test the content, design and interactions

Test the course on learners, before and during the design process. Designers can have a very different perspective on a course to that of learners. Find out that content, interactions or imagery and graphics are not delivering the learning experience the learner wants early on.

Why bother? Save costs and time in reviews and mistakes by highlighting issues early on. The result? Training based on the learner’s learning desires.

Getting the learner to engage with your elearning once you’ve launched is just as important, something we covered in our blog about using marketing techniques to get the word out about your elearning.
Engagement once you’re into the course itself leads us to the next of our E’s:

Part 2 of the 6 e’s of elearning will explain the learning environment, how to make learning exciting and how to evaluate your elearning.
Read more... 

Source: Sponge UK (blog)