The 6 e’s of elearning – Part 2 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.

Part 1 took us through the first 3 e’s of elearning: Engagement, emotion and empowerment. We finish by discussing the learning environment, ways to excite learners and how to evaluate the course.

Photo: Sponge UK (blog)

Environmental Learning In her book ‘Design for how people learn’, Julie Dirksen argues that students studying for an exam are wise to choose to study in the grey, windowless classroom, rather than the cosy library or the noisy coffee shop.

Design For How People Learn

Why? Because the theory is that learning situated within a particular social or physical environment improves the recall and memory of what’s being studied.

Learning that’s situated within a particular social or physical environment improves recall and memory of what’s being studied

As an instructional designer, I want to design elearning experiences that reflect the learner’s reality (or as close as I possibly can).

Understanding where the learner will be putting into practice their new found knowledge/skill/motivation will help greatly in designing elearning that mirrors their reality.

Some of my recent projects that have used this well involved creating elearning designs that simulated a text message conversation between a client and the learner. Made in the responsive Adapt software, the learner ‘scrolled’ through the messages as they would on their phone. When completed on a mobile or tablet, it simulated exactly how a real text conversation would happen.

Provide the learner with an accurate and relevant context in which their elearning takes place

It sounds simple, but getting the terminology and content into a format that is short, sharp and conversational took some time. One big plus was having the constraint of fitting the text into ‘message bubbles’  – this really helped SMEs and writers to concentrate on delivering really focused copy!

In the early stages of designing, find out where, when and how (place, time and method) the 
learner will put into action the objectives or outcomes of the elearning experience. Then work backwards and look to include as many emotional, physical and contextual triggers as possible, either in design, copy or delivery method (or all three!).
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Source: Sponge UK (blog)