EDU624: Blog 1
- Rosa Conti
- Sep 18, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2022
Designing an e-Learning Course? Keep Your Learners in Mind.
Until a few years ago, I orchestrated 132 community events over ten years through a Meetup group that I had created to deliver two-hour educational workshops on healthy living. My guest speakers were experts, teachers, coaches, and healers I solicited through the back of magazines, bulletin boards, and word of mouth. By a "vote of feet," I considered the events successful when the room was filled to capacity and people left smiling.
While my initiative was mostly self-fulfilling (because I gained tremendous knowledge from not only the speakers but through participant story shares), I still always ensured to include a WIIFM: What's In It For Me? for my attendees.
In other words: What could people expect to learn, and why should they care? This was over a decade ago, long before I began this M.Ed. program and discovered the importance of learning objectives. Still, I instinctively knew that without a roadmap leading us to desired learning outcomes, there was no guarantee that I could guide my guest presenters to deliver what I thought we needed to learn.
This story is relevant because one of the biggest challenges that course designers have when beginning the construction of an e-Learning course is how and where to begin. I have learned that designing an e-Learning course is not that different from creating a corporate town hall PowerPoint presentation or a two-hour community workshop when it comes to keeping the audience in mind. When determining a curriculum for others, it's critical to ask yourself what kind of content is needed to reach your goals.
Still, it could be argued that even more importantly, especially in an online course, said content should be created and delivered in ways that capture, engage, and keep the learner's attention.
MY COURSE PROJECT
I oversee corporate training objectives at my job and have exposure to the makings of compliance storyboards through my L&D partners. Not wanting to crutch on what has already been done, I selected a topic for this project that I know well and enjoy very much: PowerPoint.
While a PowerPoint Basics course could also benefit and be applied to an older audience, mine will target sixth- to eighth-grade students. This is made evident by the throughline story plot, which focuses on a 15-year boy named Alex who wants to start an after-school lawn-mowing business. His neighbors (potential customers) want more information, so Alex’s parents suggest he create a PowerPoint presentation to show at the next neighborhood meeting. Students of this module will “follow along” as Alex learns how to make two basic slides in PowerPoint to pitch his business proposal.
It has been shown that using conversational first- and second-person language results in deeper learning, as does the inclusion of a ‘learning agent,’ a character with whom students can follow along (Clark, 2002). Thus, the storyline’s protagonist, Alex, will relate to the audience in age and social context.
My course will take learners on an entry-level journey of acquiring knowledge for performing six fundamental functions in PowerPoint (herein called module topics). Upon completing this course, learners will be able to perform the following tasks, each of which is a module topic. These module topics complement and will double as learning objectives, which will help to guide the course content, learning activities, and assessment evaluations.
By the end of this e-Learning module, learners should be able to:
Start and save a PowerPoint presentation
Add and format text on a PowerPoint slide
Add and edit pictures on a PowerPoint slide
Add and edit shapes on a PowerPoint slide
Arrange objects on a PowerPoint slide
Insert, delete and move slides around within a PowerPoint presentation
E-LEARNING DESIGN
A simple definition of e-Learning is "the use of electronic technologies to create learning experiences" (Horton, 2012). My biggest takeaway on this subject has been learning that subjectivity is allowed when deciding how these learning experiences can be organized and created. For example, e-Learning can be delivered in various ways, such as standalone courses, mobile learning, social learning, learning games and simulations, and virtual-classroom courses (Horton, 2012).
My second Aha! moment was to learn the oft-confused difference between instructional design and development.
An e-Learning designer decides what skills or knowledge the learner needs to know and creates the instructional materials. The developer, in turn, takes this information and builds the construction of the e-Learning environment, whatever form that may be (Purdue University, n.d.). This information is important to me because I am considering furthering my education after this M.Ed. program to lean into the area of learning design. Knowing these distinctions will help guide my choices.
If I could leave one impression on someone new to understanding the art and science of e-Learning, it would be to know that there are many critical aspects to consider when designing a learning experience. A focused and mindful approach is required to remain calibrated to learning objectives and ultimately decide what should be included and left out.
For example, a challenge when designing the initial flow of my storyboard was not to create an overcrowded or complicated feel by adding too much. I had just watched a tutorial about Storyline 360 and was eager to try out its many gamification features. Still, I knew that if too much were going on, learners would tune out and not be able to focus and follow the consistency I was aiming to create.
Bottom line: always keep the learner in mind. Keep it simple to make it effective, from staying aligned with learning objectives (Pappas, 2021) to deciding what kind of e-Learning house to build and what to include inside.
'ABSORB' ACTIVITIES
Absorb activities are ones where students read, listen to, or watch information with the intent of learning. Even though they can appear passive, it’s during this time that they are learning the context, vocabulary, principles, and instructions that they came for (Horton, 2012).
When creating an Absorb activity, it’s good to know that people become engaged when experiencing an emotional connection during learning. And because we usually remember a story versus facts, one of the best ways to make an e-Learning course exciting and engaging is to include a case study with a relevant perspective, one that people can relate to (QuoDeck Speak, 2016). This is why my course will follow a story lesson about a boy named Alex needing to learn PowerPoint.
By integrating Alex’s simulated “real-life” story into the learning activities, my adolescent learners will be able to see (i.e., absorb) the value of the lessons and how they can be helpful in the real world. This can motivate them to care about what they are learning and encourage them to pay good attention (Pappas, 2021).
However, Absorb activities can be created and delivered in many ways, depending on the learning objectives. For example, presentations can include slide shows, physical demos, and discussions. Reading, teacher stories, and field trip assignments (including highly-acclaimed virtual tours) are more examples.
My project course will include six narrated screencasts (covering all six learning objectives) that will offer a show-and-tell illustration of the steps Alex needs to follow to create a PowerPoint slide. This “over the shoulder” view of this software demonstration is the perfect Absorb activity because students will be able to experience learning using two mental constructs: auditory and visual. Also, viewing a software demonstration of PowerPoint offers more understanding than just contextual learning.
Lastly, visuals “have a huge impact on the minds of students” (Rajendran et al., 2010). The screencasts and frequent placement of different images of Alex throughout the course will level up learner appeal and attention.
'DO' ACTIVITIES
Do activities take the information learned in Absorb activities and allow learners to practice what they learned to solidify knowledge and skills. In other words, these reinforcement activities give students a way to apply and strengthen their understanding of what they just learned (Andriotis, 2016).
Like Absorb activities, Do activities can be accomplished in various ways, depending on the learning objectives. These activities have three categories: Practice Activities, Discovery Activities, and Games and Simulations (Horton, 2012).
This is where I mentioned I needed to remind myself to stay focused on my learners’ objectives because many subset activities within these three categories could be exciting and fun for students. But in the spirit of not overloading my e-Learning course, I needed only to select the ones that I felt would be the most effective.
Therefore, one of two types of alternating assessments (Do activities) will follow each Absorb activity:
Quizzes will consist of four questions that include True/False and Multiple-Choice options listed in random order.
Drag and Drop exercises will allow the learner to drag the correct answer onto one of the four statements listed.
Because this generation of approximately 12- to 14-year-old learners is a propensity toward gaming, Drag and Drop exercises are included to leverage interest and build confidence.
Drag and Drop activities fall into the “practice” category under a “guided analysis” approach. The purpose of a guided analysis task is to make complex information seem simpler and easier to understand (Laskaris, 2019). So, then, Drag and Drop exercises help to filter out the not-so-important data and classify the essential information into meaningful learning nuggets.
Over the remaining weeks of this course, I plan to identify, design, and incorporate Connect activities into my e-Learning course storyboard, ultimately fleshing out the course slides to load into Storyline 360.
It would be nice to create a second phase of this project where the developmental steps of this course were test-run with an age-appropriate audience. This would help to answer my earlier question if I am creating content that will capture, engage, and keep the attention of my learner. Without directly asking students for their input or feedback ideas, how do we know if they are genuinely engaged and excited about what they are learning? How might we be able to tell the extrinsic and intrinsic aspects that positively trigger our students?
There are tell-tales of disengagement, such as passing notes, falling asleep, not showing up to class, and erratic behavior, to name a few. Likewise, we can surmise students are interested if they ask questions or take notes, but this can be somewhat subjective. Body language and behavioral engagement can sometimes indicate how attentive and active a student is in the classroom, but I believe that understanding the degree of emotional and cognitive engagement can only be found using qualitative research, such as student interviews, surveys, and comments.
This video, presented by University of Waterloo researchers, offers insight into why students favor mixed media and interactivity in online learning.
References
Andriotis, N. (2016, July 28). Drill and practice activities for your eLearning courses. eFront Learning. https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2016/07/drill-practice-activities-elearning.html
Clark, R. (2002, September 10). Six Principles of Effective e-Learning: What Works and Why. Florida State University. https://myweb.fsu.edu/ajeong/eme5457/readings/Clark2002MultimediaPrinciples.pdf
Horton, W. (2012). E-Learning by design. (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Laskaris, J. (2019, May 23). What are guided-analysis activities in training programs? TalentLMS. https://www.talentlms.com/blog/guided-analysis-activities-training
Pappas, C. (2021, May 12). Top 10 tips to create effective eLearning presentations and slideshows. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/top-10-tips-create-effective-elearning-presentations-and-slideshows
Purdue University. (n.d.). What is instructional design?https://online.purdue.edu/blog/education/what-is-instructional-design
QuoDeck Speak. (2016, August 2). Why you should use case studies to make your elearning course more engaging. https://quodeckspeak.com/2016/08/02/why-you-should-use-case-studies-to-make-your-elearning-course-more-engaging
Rajendran, L., Veilumuthu, R., & Divya, J. (2010, November 6). A study on the effectiveness of virtual lab in Elearning. Engg Journals Publications. https://www.enggjournals.com/ijcse/doc/IJCSE10-02-06-91.pdf
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