This presentation focused on developing stand-alone e-learning courses. It is not something that we do all the time; however, there are lessons that can be learned and applied to the type of instruction that we do provide. Ethan Edwards from Allen Interactions, Inc. highlighted stand-alone e-learning training is something that people avoid. I know this to be the case, because I just sat through some terrible e-learning training. We should be creating opportunities that are irresistible.
Motivation in e-learning is essential because the purpose of e-learning is to create meaningful performance changes. He noted that it should have three elements:
- Should be an active process
- Learners construct meaning through errors and success
- Learners should be in control. Let them control the progress through the course.
He also provided some e-learning myths:
- Media alone is not enough
- Brute force is not effective
- Trivial rewards fade quickly
Presently, individuals’ chief motivation is to get through the course with doing as little as possible as quick as possible.
6 Rules to Increase Motivation
Say Less
Edwards stressed that we don’t need as much information as we are normally providing. We should consider reducing excess content, definitely removing unrelated content, and removing tech and policy information from the lesson. Put this information into a resources section.
In previous instruction I received, I was told to cut the written content in half and then cut it in half again.
During the presentation, he provided a lot of real-world examples of training that they built for corporations such as Dairy Queen. In this particular example, rather than tell students how to build a sandwich, they virtually got to build the sandwiches. They were able to learn quicker than memorizing some abstract procedure.
Make It More Challenging
We need to make e-learning participants think. This means making the training challenging. We have to assume prior knowledge. We can not worry about ambiguity; it should be part of this the course. We need to let learners work for the information. In other words, don’t treat them like idiots.
Delayed Judgment
As soon as you put a score on something, learning stops. We need to stop putting scores on things so quickly, rather we should provide feedback to help them think about the material that they are working on. We should allow for opportunities for self-assessment and correction. This increases thinking and memory.
Appeal to Emotion
We need to treat people with humanity. Edwards provided a wonderful example from the Cervical Cytology training that they developed. It was connecting with the larger reason why they did the training that they did. This goes back to creating a sense of why before you get to the what and how.
Create Levels of Difficulty
When building e-learning increase challenges as skills develop. You should have a sense of levels. Each level increases based on new functionality and new degrees of challenge.
One way you could do this is turn off the help during the assessment and provide help during training.
Increase Learner Control
You should allow the learner to control the pace, sequence, learning strategy, and completion.
All in all, I think these are great lessons that can be applied to other situations. I think that we provide too much hand-holding in courses and we need to allow students to work with the material even if they struggle and fail.
