Three Tips for e-Learning Dominance

Three Tips for e-Learning Dominance:

Wouldn’t it be great to have the most dominant, overruling, kick butt e-learning imaginable. (meaning people actually learned and applied what you wanted them to learn and apply from taking your e-learning module).

Here are three tips to help you achieve that goal.

ONE: Make the learning meaningful. The learner needs to see an immediate need and application of the content to what they are doing. Make it realistic, targeted and focused on actions and activity. This is accomplished by giving the learner an actual situation in which they need to apply the knowledge you are hoping they learn. Tie the outcomes of the learning to what the person “needs” to do and is driven to do. If they are in medicine, tie the learning to patient outcome. If they are in retail, tie it to increasing sales. Find the meaning outside of the learning….link the learning experience to desired on-the-job performance (not mere knowledge or “awareness).

TWO: Spend some time thinking through the learner experience. I am so tired of Rapid E-Learning. Most of the time the result is only “Rapid” and no learning. Good stuff takes time. You can’t rapidly build a pyramid or quickly master piano. Time is also need for wonderful creations. Even the iPhone wasn’t created in two weeks and wonderful works of art need time to roll around in a person’s head. Designing truly high quality e-learning takes time. Push back against time constraints and invest the time in a wonderful, learning-focused experience instead of an endless stream of PowerPoint-enabled screens with bullet after bullet of what you should or shouldn’t do. Some development maybe fast but, here’s a secret, it doesn’t work. Make the time to craft dominant e-learning.

THREE: Incorporate the science of learning. There are tons of well documented, well-researched articles, books and even blog posts that discuss the research or evidence-based approach to learning. Let’s apply some of that. I heard the other day that in the medical field less than 70% of doctors practice evidence-based medicine on a regular basis and I suspect Learning and Development professionals have a number closer to less than 95% practice evidence-based instructional design. I know, its too hard to read the research or I don’t have the time. But yet, the time is available to keep creating barrels and barrels of sub-par e-learning that doesn’t promote learning (hey but its done quickly). So, take the time, read the research subscribe to the research journals of the professional societies read the work by Ruth Clark and Will Thalhimer among others. Apply researched methods like distributed practice to make a real difference, to create dominant e-learning.

So, in short. Dominate e-learning by making it meaningful, taking time to do it right and making it evidenced-based.