“Why can’t we just take an existing product, and put a clock in it or something?”
One of my favourite Simpsons episodes has a moment where Homer offers the quote above as his response, when confronted with a complex blueprint for a revolutionary new product that he just can’t get his head around.
What’s this got to do with e-learning? Well, to me it comes to mind when you look at how some training providers propose games as a radical new solution to engage learners – and then come up with a bolt-on game-playing experience that combines racing cars, multiple choice questions and a third-rate set of character designs to teach learners about the Data Protection Act.
Now, this isn’t knocking games as a learning device. Properly targeted and carefully crafted, they can produce effective learning experiences ranging from simulations and skills-practice through to powerful prompts to reflection.
But I think that their popularity sometimes reflects a failure to engage with a much more fundamental, underlying issue in online learning – one of narrative credibility.
All too often, online training can suffer from the same kind of ‘narrative delusion’ that insular politicians do. ‘If we only explain what we’re proposing clearly enough, surely everyone sensible will then agree with us’ – whilst failing to genuinely acknowledge different perspectives; dissent; the fact that very serious challenges may exist and that many endeavours, initiatives and processes are – at least initially – unpopular (especially when change is involved).
Now, clearly learning providers have to present content in a positive way that helps organisations achieve their training aims. But often, when e-learning claims that it treats learners as adults/presents content from a ‘What’s In It For Me?’ perspective and acknowledges real-world complexity – it doesn’t , not really – and learners smell a rat right from the start, which undermines engagement (and whatever the narrative is) on a fundamental level.
Similarly, if the content isn’t demonstrably useful, easy to navigate and oriented towards supporting performance rather than covering an arbitrary curriculum – people will often start looking at their watches and clicking Next.
And at that stage, all of the gimmicks in the world won’t be much use.
One answer? Radical honesty. This could present itself in any number of ways – open acknowledgement of past organisational failures; the pressures of tough targets; challenges to motivation; competitors’ strengths; or personal stress. Same basic content – different paradigm.
And then, having started off from a solid position – by telling a powerful truth to learners that resonates with the real world they live in – narratives (whether through case studies, scenarios, or – indeed – games) are in a much better place to succeed.
Here, ‘honest’ learning content can use the weight of (implicit) negative expectation to its advantage, subverting expectations and generating surprise, engagement and buy-in. ‘Oh, another corporate e-learning course – yawn…hey, wait – what did they just say?!? I think I’d better pay attention to this!’
Alternatively, you could just go with the racing cars…
Many thanks to guest blogger, Daniel Whiston, Award Winning Instructional Designer & Scriptwriter
As a learning designer the new learning universe means choice. We now have a whole raft of technologies available for us to use for the delivery of online training programs. Historically using a range of technologies had such cost implications that it would be deemed an unfeasible solution. Now technology is both more accessible and affordable. As a learning designer the process of selecting which technology solutions are going to feature in a learning program is one of the first considerations at the project initiation and learning design stage of the development cycle. I believe selecting the right blend of technology is as important as the source material. It is worth noting that this choice of technology is accompanied by its own set of responsibilities. In order to find the right blend of technology for a learning program we need to get much closer to the end users. We need to understand how and when they use technology in their jobs and how we can develop content that will both facilitate and support the knowledge transfer process. Well-designed blended training solutions should not only upskill and inform the end users but should be able to support them to apply their new skills in their day to day roles. In reality this means as learning designers we need to facilitate the knowledge transfer process and encourage proficiency by providing end users realistic simulations, relevant mobile content, informative videos and useful downloads. My motivation for using a range of different technologies is to make the learning journey relevant and provide the end user with genuine context. When a learning journey is designed well the life span of the training is extended, the content will end up being used beyond the level of proficiency and should act as a on the job support aid. The new learning universe also means that we can now develop learning communities. This is a powerful concept because it means that learners are not restricted to participating in the program in isolation. From a learning design perspective we can now encourage end users to participate in group based tasks and share their experiences with the rest of the community. Not only is the opportunity to collaborate across their peer group motivating but it also allows end users to share their experiences and understanding of the training programme. Content can also be derived from these collaboration pieces, in mature learning communities, to provide user generated content. Personally the new learning universe means that I have the tools at my disposal to develop a truly engaging, relevant, scalable and rich mixed media learning programs. It means that online learning is equipped and capable of tackling really complex subjects and provide end users with a really innovative and effective learning journey.
