Instructional Design – what works? Dannielle Phelan

Lantern Learning Design

WORKSHOP 4

Four Words

Which four words would you choose to describe your own experiences with eLearning?

Well, four adjectives really.

Possibilities What we don’t want... What we aim for...

Dull Engaging Confusing Meaningful Irrelevant Relevant

Compulsory Accessible

What’s possible...

Motivating Fascinating

Transforming Adaptive

What is Instructional Design? The instructional designer moves online learning from

‘dull’ to ‘motivating’, from ‘irrelevant’ to ‘transforming’.

They take learning outcomes and turn them into

opportunities for behavioural change.

They communicate with the eLearning team and create online learning sequences.

You already know...

As experienced face-to-face trainers, you already know how to facilitate learning.

Let’s look at how to transfer your skills and

knowledge from the training room to the online environment.

Questions learners ask ‘What do I need to do?’ Learners may be confused by the structure of eLearning materials or their presentation. We need to provide a clear and consistent structure for our eLearning materials so that they can concentrate on learning, not on finding their way around.

‘Why am I here?’ Without a training room context and immediate feedback from a trainer or peers, learners may struggle to focus on the learning material or may wonder why they are doing it. Learners need clear and simple instructions that describe what they need to do and why they need to do it. Instructions should be worded in plain English and use consistent language targeted to the audience.

‘What's the point?’ When a learner loses focus in the training room, the presenter can recognise this and re-engage that learner. Instructional designers employ a range of strategies to engage learners in the eLearning process.

‘Can you help me?’ Don't forget, even though people learning online will have access to help, they need to make the effort to get in contact with their manager or the HR department to ask questions (they can't just put up their hand). They may lose interest in the process or become confused without immediate feedback. We need to pre-empt their questions as much as possible and provide space for immediate feedback in the eLearning product.

‘I'm different, how....’ In a training room context, a presenter can automatically modify activities to suit individual students who may learn differently or have special needs. When we design online learning materials, we need to provide spaces for all students to learn.

Skills transfer

Activity: Brainstorm

• Which face-to-face training skills transfer from the training room to the online environment?

• Which skills are specific to the online environment?

Learner-centred design

Learner-centred design makes the learner the focus of your instructional design process.

What does the learner need to do to meet the

learning outcomes?

In a competency based framework, this seems like common sense – right?

Focus

Right! But... ...in eLearning teams, these things can often

become the central design focus:

Existing content Technology

Organisational drivers Time and resource constraints

Opportunities When the instructional design focus moves away from the

learner we can end up with ...

Depressing content ‘dumps’

High/low tech headaches

Compliance-driven checkboxers

Process-heavy monsters

Most importantly we lose opportunities to engage learners.

What do learners need?

Before we can design ‘learner-centred’ eLearning, we need to understand who the learners are

and what they need.

What do learners need?

Learners need to be engaged – www.brokencoworker.com

Storyboarding

A storyboard is like a blueprint. It defines exactly what will appear on a screen, and how students will navigate through different screens in a learning sequence.

Storyboarding • Storyboards give the project team opportunities to review content

and ensure that various legal obligations are met (copyright, talent release).

• Finalised storyboards provide instructions to the graphic designer and developer. They describe exactly how content will appear and function on the screen.

• Effective storyboards are clear, succinct and consistent and formatting is used to differentiate instructions to the development team and content that will appear on screen.

• Storyboards contain identifying information and a change management log to ensure version control.

Create a template

Activity: • Create a storyboard template. • Focus on how you will use the storyboard to

communicate with other team members.

A learning sequence

A learning sequence describes what a learner will do online.

Storyboarding

Activity • Take one learning outcome. • Create a learning sequence and communicate

this to the eLearning team using your storyboard template.

Session 2 – Monday 17th June

Mark Pesce, Futurist and Author Hyperconnected Education

Naomi Stallard, Department of Training and Workforce Development A basic guide to copyright

Gareth MacRae, West Coast Institute of Training What you need to do to ‘educate for sustainability’

Sharon Ferrier, Persuasive Presentations Staple it to their heads – how to make your training stick Part 2

Sue Fergusson, National Centre for Vocational Education and Research The Impact of e-learning technologies: what do we know?