The e-Learning Balancing Act: Good ID vs Efficient

Development

Presented by Bottom-Line Performance, IncFebruary 22, 2008

From presentation made by Anders Gronstedt, The Grondstedt Group

Who We Are

Scott

BradBLP “Rock Stars”

Who are you?

One-person shop who designs and develops e-Learning?

Part of a team where responsibilities are divvied up between IDers and developer/programmers?

Managers responsible for e-learning and/or other kinds of training?

Learners who have participated in e-learning?

Novice – just trying to learn everything?

What you should leave with today:

Clarity on cognitive learning theory and how it should affect decisions you make about e-learning design.

A list of efficient, research-based ways to help learners “Get it in. Get it integrated. Get it back out on the job.”

Tips for how to balance good ID against the ever-present goal to do it faster and cheaper – what you need to start, stop, or continue with your e-learning efforts.

p. 2 handout

What’s true for you?

p. 3 handout

What’s true for you?

Pick ONE of the statements that sparks greatest curiosity/interest in you.

Share the statement – along with why it intrigues you – with table group.

As a TABLE, agree on one statement you want to learn more about.

Select spokesperson to share table’s choice.

Okay – What’s Cognitive Learning Theory?

I can only handle so

much!!!!

Effective instruction manages cognitive load…and avoids OVERLOAD

p. 4 handout

These guys are taking an e-course

Product A is better than Product B…

Here’s what’s happening

Step 2. Information travels to working memory.Step 1. Information enters

eyes and ears. It’s briefly stored in visual and auditory sensory memory.

Step 3. Working memory tries to integrate new info with what’s stored.

Encoding

Role of metacognition

Product A is better tha nProduct B…

Encoding

• “Metacognition” refers to thinking skills – ability to set learning goals, plan our learning, and monitor our own learning.

• It hugely influences how easily we learn.

Later….back on the job

RetrievalStep 4. Learner attempts to retrieve information from long-term memory into working memory…if he recognizes job cues that call for information to be used.

Learning E

fficiency

What’s it got to do with e-learning?

We can INCREASE learning efficiency if we incorporate principles that avoid cognitive overload and leverage things that enhance encoding and retrieval.

Learning Efficiency

We actually DEPRESS learning when we ignore principles related to cognitive learning theory.

9 Principles to Enhance Learning Efficiency

pp.5-8 handout

6 principles to enhance presentation of content3 principles related to practice/feedback

1. Use both words and visuals

Use BOTH words and images…but don’t just “decorate” a page.

Words

+Pictures

The four-part risk management process is blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

This example is a graphical organizer of a process…simple, but more useful that four bullet points.

Example 2: Illustrating a concept

How do you illustrate “stress?”

Example 2: Illustrating a concept

How do you illustrate “stress?”

2. Integrate the text with the visual

This diagram is not referred to in text below.

These aren’t shown!

I see a picture up here…and further down I get a list of parts with no linkage to photo.

A good example – multimedia and contiguity

Another good example

What about this one?

Page 6 of handouts

3. Use audio to explain graphics

It’s more efficient (less of a cognitive load) for people to hear a narrator describe a graphic than it is to have to study the graphic and read accompanying text.

Watch – and listen - to this FABULOUS vodcast from Common Craft, a Seattle-based company that does

vodcasts

4. Avoid redundancy with audio and text

+The four-part risk management process is blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

Narration Visual Text+ = NO!

5. Get rid of extraneous stuff

Stick to the essentials ONLY. Use simplest words you can and keep things SHORT.

What do you think is essential?

Instructional Goal: Personal bankers use Bank Wonderful’s customer service practices in each customer transaction they complete.

• History of Bank Wonderful’s customer service practices?

• Stories of how customers respond to good/bad service?

• Statistics about increased sales with use of practices?

• Other?

How does coherence principle link to….

Role of emotion in learning? 7 +/- 2 Primacy, Recency,

What will you remember?

Multimedia principle, Modality principle, snow, Contiguity principle, Coherence principle, Personalization principle, New York Giants , Eli Manning, visuals, text, audio, relevant, coffee, juice, muffins, fruit, learning agent, worked examples, job cues, learning efficiency, auditory channel, visual channel, encoding, integration, Redundancy principle

6. Personalization Principle

Explain it in an e-course the way you’d explain it to a friend:– Use 1st or 2nd person

language.– Use active voice. (“we” and

“you” as opposed to Incorporate learning agents

as guides

Meet Ken Michaels

7. Make practice relevant & sufficient

Just say NO to simple

recall activities!

7. Make practice relevant & sufficient

Instead of:– Drag the missing pieces of this

sketch into place. When you’re done, click Check Answer.

How about….– Now let’s try using a sketch to

communicate with a customer. Click CUSTOMER WANTS to get an example of an opening a customer might request. Use the images on the right hand side of the screen to sketch out that opening for your customer.

8. Use worked examples

Instead of….– You have three locks that each require .3 mA. Figure

out whether a 1A power supply is sufficient to support them.

Can a 1A power supply support three locks that each require .300 mA? Let’s see:

• .300 mA x 3 locks = .900 mA.• .900 mA is less than 1A

Yes, a 1A power supply will power these three locks!

9. Intersperse examples and practice

Is this the only place you have practice? If so, you’ve really burdened your learner!

A word about styles

Les Howles, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Research DOES show correlation here: 1) Prior knowledge, experience, 2) Task confidence, 3) Motivation, 4) Aptitude

…And Control

What we want

What we may need

Programming Tips

Some “quick” hits

Embrace audio…equipment is cheap to buy and easy to learn to use.

Use less text; more visuals and simple animations. Create re-usable learning objects. Program them once;

use them again and again. Combine Flash and XML – you can re-use the Flash

interface and pull in content from XML files. Create re-usable interfaces. Think through once; use

again and again with different “skins.”

How could you re-use this idea?

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html#

How could you re-use this idea?

Course created for local medical device mfr, 2007

External XML files are pulled into here

Or this one?

From Bill Horton’s web site: www.horton.com

How’s this for more visual/less text?

From http://discovery.mnhs.org/connectingmn/

Research Summary from Clark’s book

Principle % Gain

Use graphics and text (Multimedia) 89

Avoid extraneous stuff (Coherence) 82

Use audio to explain graphics (Modality) 80

Avoid redundant audio and text (Redundancy) 79

Integrate text with visuals (Contiguity) 68

Personalize tone; use agents (Personalization) 67Adapted from p. 273, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction (2003 edition)

Decision Matrix – Applying Guidelines

Look at Page 13 AND the decision matrix on pp. 11 and 12 of your handouts.

Based on your assigned scenario, brainstorm a list of features/attributes you want to include in your course. Feel free to storyboard if you have time.

You get a whopping 5 minutes to do this! The goal is to talk with each other – we won’t share as a big group ‘cause we won’t have time!