What makes e-learning engaging?
In the previous article, we looked at common problems found in many e-learning courses, where we discussed that poorly designed courses just aren't engaging. In this article, let's look at what does make a course engaging!
Relevance
For adult learners, the key to making an e-learning course engaging is making it relevant to their current situation. If the course will help them deal with a problem they are facing, or to make them more efficient or effective, then they are more likely to engage with the course and use it to make changes in the real world.
Before designing a course, it’s critical that the instructional designer asks a number of questions:
What do the learners need to do in their job?
Why aren’t they currently doing it?
What barriers do they face and will an elearning course help with these?
What specific behaviours are we looking to change as a result of the course?
To help answer these questions, talking to potential learners as well as subject matter experts is important, to fully understand their situation, workplace and projects. The following questions can help here:
What tasks are you having trouble with?
What could help you perform these tasks?
What do you already know about the subject?
How and when would you likely access a learning solution on the subject?
Learning design
Once I have a clear understanding of the learner’s situation, and have decided a course would help with the issues faced, then it’s time to start designing the course.
As discussed in five common issues with many elearning courses today, it’s critical to stay away from excessive use of information. Simply throwing huge amounts of text at a learner is unlikely to change their behaviour.
So when I'm designing a course, how do I avoid an ineffective “information dump” course? The key is to make the course as interactive as possible. Making the course rich in performance-based elearning interactions is a great way to grab the learner’s attention and hold their interest. The more a learner interacts with a course, the more likely they are to retain the information and, in turn, to make immediate and positive changes in their workplace.
These interactions need to be based on real world situations or problems they are likely to encounter. I like to put the learner in situations where they have to make decisions and take action. An elearning course is a perfect place for them to learn the consequences of their decisions and actions.
It’s also important to put learners in these hypothetical situations before they are fully ready. Many courses ask learner to recall facts they’ve just seen, which only testing their short term memory. By putting them in a realistic situation before revealing the best course of action, this encourage them to think and work for the answers, and will provide the necessary amount of cognitive “friction” to facilitate learning.
I also look to provide information in the course the learner can optionally access use to help answer these questions, encouraging independent thinking and exploration.
Theory and answers can then be delivered in the form of feedback, which can be personalised to the specific response chosen.
At this point, including videos people with experience talking about the topic —lessons learned, mistakes made and advice can help add authenticity and a human touch to the course.
Scenarios
Often the best way to achieve all of the above is through scenarios.
A scenario is basically a story, a real-world example of an issue learners may face when doing their job. The scenario is a vehicle to present background, context and the problem, and then ask learners to respond appropriately.
Using scenarios instead of generic information can help create an emotional connection with the learner, making the elearning course immediately more relevant.
For example, let’s say we are writing an elearning course to train call centre staff on dealing with the most common issues encountered. Many courses built by other instructional designers would list the complaints and generic ways on how to deal with them in bullet points, then quiz the learner afterwards.
However, it’s better to give the learner a chance to practice dealing with these issues through scenarios. I would interview call centre staff and review data to learn the most important issues to cover. I would then design interactive scenarios where the learner needs to manage an example of a customer with that issue by selecting the appropriate response. Depending on how the learner responds, the scenario could branch to a series of different outcomes, some more successful than others.
Scenarios give the learner:
an opportunity to learn through the experience of others.
a much higher exposure to potential issues in a short period of time than they would see on the job.
the freedom to make suboptimal choices and learn from the consequences in a non-threatening environment.
a chance to realise that have a gap in their knowledge when they think they know everything but then see an unanticipated outcome.
Other things to focus on
I think making courses interactive and focusing on real-world behaviours is critical. There’s a few more things I do to maintain engagement, including:
Developing other existing resources, such as job aids, in-person training linked to the elearning course, webinars and performance tools.
Repetition: Asking learners could repeat scenarios after a certain period of time to maximise their learning, especially if they’re short.
Keeping the course succinct: Any content which is not a “must-have” inclusion, directly influencing the learners behaviour should be removed from the course. Keeping individual topics confined to brief modules that can be completed in short bursts can also be a great way to hold the learners attention, as well as making the content easier able to be reused and repackaged.
Paying attention to the visual design of the course, making it immediately appealing. Ensure your fonts and colours and design principle are used consistently, and images are used only to enhance the learning experience.
Ensure navigation is simple and clear: A learner should be able to start using a course without instructions.
Setting up a mentoring program in companies to back up training delivered.
By focusing on these principles, I create courses that are a pleasure for learners to complete, and are much more likely to make a positive change in their lives.