Welcome to our newsletter. This week, Lead Instructional Designer Susan Wilcox is sharing their thoughts on the epidemic of boring e-learning content.
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“Oh.”
That’s the usual response I get when I tell friends and family what I do for a living.
I am sure I’m not the first, nor the only, e-learning instructional designer (ID) to have trouble getting people to understand what I do. They ask me, but the answer typically produces a puzzled look. instructional designer is not recognized with the same immediacy as, say, doctor, dentist or rocket scientist.
Because I’m a competent ID, I am compelled to then give them an example. “You’ve taken an online course for something, right?” I ask. “Someone makes those. That’s what I do.” They do get it then, but no one has responded with, “Cool! I love online courses!”...
For the most part, people remember e-learning experiences as dry, dull somethings they had to do for some reason.
Get a degree
Tick off a compliance checklist
Make their boss happy
They are not going to light up for that.
And I don’t blame them. So much e-learning is just plain deadly dull. How did we ever get here? I can think of several reasons.
The Road We’ve Taken
When computer-based learning first became a reality, instructional designers based their efforts on proven classroom and textbook-based distance learning techniques. The student would:
read a chapter
listen to a lecture
do some homework
then take a test to see what they had learned
But only a proportion of students have ever thrived in this model.
But while some students did well, many, many others fidgeted their way through school. Not only did they not learn, but they developed a negative attitude toward learning.
To be fair to those instructional designers, the technology they were working with was pretty basic. It didn’t support much innovation.
So why, years later, is so much online learning still based on the same model?
The typical pattern for an online college course is to watch a video lecture, read some supporting material, chat in a forum, maybe do an exercise, then complete a test to demonstrate learning and, in doing so, reinforce key points.
If someone wasn’t crazy about learning in the schoolroom, they won’t be any more enthusiastic about the online version. Is it any wonder that less than 15% of those who register for free college online courses, like Coursera and edX, actually complete their learning?
So the big question for us is: why does so much corporate training still follow the same old, marginally successful model?
There is a simple answer: inertia. We do it because that’s how it’s always been done. Inertia carries us forward.
Inertia and Expectation: This Is SERIOUS!
Picture this scenario:
You go to a meeting and describe to your subject matter experts and other powers-that-be your idea for an innovative and ‘totally cute’ approach to what is normally a dull subject, only to be stopped cold with, “Not right for this project. This is serious!”
Sound familiar?
Serious subjects, it is thought, require serious treatments to seriously communicate their seriousness. And what subject isn’t serious? If it justifies the time, resources and budget to design and develop, it’s serious enough to approach seriously.
Unfortunately, seriousness is often confused with dryness, and so creative approaches are shot down in the interest of having the ‘right tone’, one that says, “It’s time to quiet down, focus and learn this important thing.” The more serious the topic, the more it is expected to be dry and straightforward.
But great teachers will tell you that the most effective learning environments aren’t quiet. They are filled with fun, enthusiasm and good feelings. Positivity enhances engagement, and engagement is the key to learning and retention.
The savvy instructional designer knows this as well. They also know that the more serious the subject, the more important the learner enthusiastically engages with the content. Creative approaches that take advantage of what current technology has to offer are more likely to achieve that — and their learning objectives.
This is sometimes a difficult sell, because inertia is strong, but with knowledge and persistence, an ID can be the force that breaks inertia to get signoff for their totally cute idea…
…if there is time and budget to execute it.
Time and Budget
Read-and-test courses are inexpensive to produce and can easily be developed by a single person and basic software. Animations, branching scenarios, video and audio take more time and often other professionals with the requisite skills. It can be downright depressing to realize that budget might get in the way of your totally cute idea.
Not too long ago, it would stop there, which is another reason past e-learning has been so boring. But recent years have seen a quantum leap in production technology.
Animation
Where it once took artists and prohibitively expensive software to produce animations, the average person can now create simple animations with SAAS offerings. It’s not Pixar, but it’s not test-and-read either.
Video
Where videos once took a crew of several people and significant studio and editing suite time to produce a watchable ‘talking head’ video, generative AI can now produce avatar videos realistic enough to make you blink twice — and they are continually adding new features that add to the authenticity.
Interactivity
Where we once had to hard-code branching scenarios and intricate interactions, development software like Storyline and Captivate provide user interfaces that do the coding for us. We just tell it what we want and when we want it.
All of these allow us to now create brilliant and innovative training even on shoestring budgets, although the shoestrings must be long enough to include subscription fees for key software.
Risk
If one of your obstacles to success is that your company likes to play it safe—or simply lacks the will to innovate—they might see the traditional model as low risk. But given its history of truly engaging only a proportion of learners, isn’t staying with that model riskier than venturing forth into the brave new world of technology?
At Strategy to Revenue, we think it is. When we discuss concepts, we ask first if it’s fun and engaging, because, if the answer is “Not really,” chances are, it won’t be effective and achieve objectives either. We delight in pushing the boundaries of what today’s technology can do to create e-learning that is engaging, effective and budget-friendly.
Ready to break the cycle of boring learning content? Learn more.
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