This is the menu used to organize the two-day certificate program called “Designing Powerful Elearning” at the 2012 Training conference in Atlanta. It might not make a lot of sense if you weren’t there, but at least you’ll see some thought-provoking examples.

There was also a detailed handout and participants got free access to the Elearning Blueprint.

My two-day workshops cover this sort of territory.

Our goals

• Change performance, not just knowledge
• “Teach” through realistic experience, not just information presentation
• Win learners’ attention and respect with challenging activities, not just bling

Success measures: the nature of our elearning, and how we’re treated by colleagues

Why are you an instructional designer?

What contribution do you want to make? How will you know you’ve had an impact?

Where are you on this spectrum?

    ”Please turn info into course” ———– “We have a performance problem”

What project will you be thinking of during these two days?

The current state of elearning

• Fluent in Finance
• Supervisor Effectiveness

What’s wrong with information?

The big mistake in elearning

Action mapping

Action mapping overview:

• Needle safety
• Store safety

1. Identify the business goal

• Who’s involved?
• What are they measuring?
• Practice making goals measurable
• How to get the client to focus on goal, not content: Allison
• Small groups: Practice creating goals
• Challenges: they don’t know business strategy; they want “awareness”; they won’t commit; etc.
• Put the goal in the map

2. Identify what people need to do to reach the goal

• Who’s involved?
• Make it behavioral and very specific. Example: what do you do when learn about new project?
• Why aren’t people already doing what’s necessary to reach the goal?
• Learn about your learners
• Is training the solution? ethics example
• Small groups: Identify 5 actions
• Challenges: too many/too few; fuzzy or “thinking”; exam-like objectives; training isn’t the solution; etc.
• Prioritize the actions
• Add actions to the map

3. For each action, identify practice activities

• Who’s involved?
• “Know” vs. “use”
• Scenarios intro
• Start thinking about story or simulation ideas:
• One big problem threaded throughout
• One problem per section
• Mini-problems
• Some activity types
• Text-only mini-scenario
• Mini-scenario with embedded info
• Text-only branching scenario
• Simulated job task
• Simulated job task with clickable images
• Stock photo branching scenario
• Simulated decisions and conversation
• Simulated sofware tasks (register, then watch the healthcare demo that’s at the bottom of the page)
• Graphic novel style branching scenario with audio
• Video branching scenario
• Solo: Choose activity types for 3 actions
• Small groups: Explain your choices
• Add activities to the map
• Feedback: contextual
• Wound cleaning
• Break-even costs
• Feedback: rewrite tell to show: Amit and Carla
• Save Jack
• Feedback: Include info in feedback
• Bioweapon Emergency Use Authorization
• Identify the Manhattan neighborhood (Expedia sample, “Can you name it?”)
• What do these have in common? How do you know you’ve made a good choice?
• Text-only branching scenario
• Video scenario, skip to this to see feedback for a choice
• How do you do prototype?
• Solo: Prototype an activity. Testing knowledge or application? Will feedback tell or show? Where will the info be?
• Small groups: Pitch your activity.
• How could you include learners? Who else could help? Could learners design their own activities?
• Challenges: too easy; no clear right & wrong; stakeholders want generic content instead of specific scenarios

4. Identify what learners have to know to complete the activities

• Who’s involved?
• What job aids might already exist?
• Course or job aid?
• Chair heights — should this be in the course or an aid?
• OSHA guidelines for wall openings — will learners remember this on the job?
• Planner or sidekick?
• Challenges: stakeholder insists, course vs. job aid, info changes quickly, info is boring
• Small groups: You be the SME
• Add info to the map

What about organization?

Reconsider the traditional approach:

• Traditional: Info, then quiz (tell, then test)
• Better: Start with the activity (test, then tell)
• Bioweapon Emergency Use Authorization
• Possibly best: Stream of activities
• Embed info in the activity: needle safety
• Safety menu before & after

Sample projects: What might the nav look like? Compare info first vs. stream of activities.

• Or redo the organization of this communication course

Learner control: How will they test their knowledge? Can they skip stuff?

What happened to objectives?

• Clickable objectives in ATV course
• Objectives that describe actions: finance
• Why don’t I like these communication objectives? (see #4)

A strong start: How can we show the benefits of the material, rather than telling them?

• Alcohol servers — how could this be made more motivating?
• Is it effective to use statistics to motivate learners?

Challenges: “you’re setting people up to fail;” “they must be exposed to every bit of info”

Media

Presenting info when you can’t avoid it

• Click to reveal: what part of the brain is this involving?
• A-B-C; pulse or no pulse
• Parts of a workstation — do you have any independence? can you get it wrong?
• Click the guy to learn about communication (see #14) — how is the guy relevant? what is your brain doing?
• Clickable graphics: graphic should communicate meaning
• Bloom’s taxonomy — graphic supports the meaning
• How could this diabetes explanation be improved? (visuals, discovery, pacing)

Narration

• Why use narration in these medical modules?
• What does this narration do? harassment
• How helpful is the audio in this cafe conversation? (#4)

Scenarios

The formula:

• Character faces a challenge
• Show the results
• Put the activity first

Mini-scenarios, branching, or threaded scenario + mini-scenarios?

• Audience: How much variation in roles, settings?
• Threaded scenario + minis: spelt mill (case study)
• Actions: Does one lead to/depend on the other? How varied are they?
• Don’t try to cram lots of actions in branching scenario. Decide based on relationship among actions.
• Diagnose two patients

Small groups: Look at your high-priority actions. Mini-scenarios or branching?

Character

• “You” or someone else?
• Give them a name and a backstory
• Let learners choose the role?

Challenge

• Not a disguised quiz question
• Not “recite info for the clueless newbie”
• I aced this without reading any of the course: boat sales — have a non-expert try your scenario to see if it’s too easy
• How could you make this communication scenario better? (see “Communication and Diversity”)
• Make them suffer: time pressure, personal worries, possible loss of face…
• Opening argument in couple where one person is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
• Increase the suffering

Identify the decision points and the objectives covered by each one

Design with debrief questions in mind: How do you learn? Experience alone, or interpreting that experience?

Use a flowchart to brainstorm a plot

• Example from Haji Kamal