This is the 2nd post in my "Online Course Design Tips" series and today's expert advice has been very kindly contributed by Instructional Designer Jason Willensky:- Old news: Make sure your learning objectives are clear and measurable, then make sure that your content and assessment align with your objectives. The current crop of eLearning tools are sensational and feature-laden, but don't lose sight of what's essential to a powerful training experience.
- Forget that you ever saw a PowerPoint presentation. Use text judiciously. Use graphics, video, and animation where possible to make your point. Use text to enhance or reinforce.
- Liberate your voice-overs from identical messages in text or graphics. Script in a way that allows the narrator to target what's important about the visual elements on the screen. Your learners don't want to hear a voice reading bullet points.
- Use white space. Don't pack too much into one frame. Same goes for voice; introduce narration after the learner soaks up visual information for a short span of time. Experiment -- not everything has to be simultaneous.
- Keep the learner's mouse moving. Even a pop true-or-false question can be an oasis in a desert of one-way information. If you're stuck with dry material, mix it up -- a basic interaction is better than none.
- The learner doesn't care about your tools. Think about creating a learning experience that's completely usable, transparent, and effortless for the learner. Get feedback on your efforts, and make adjustments.
You can follow his tweets here: @jwillensky
I agree that training needs to be more interactive and less text-based,as most of these tips indicate.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to #2, however, I'd say that depends on your audience. If your audience has lower literacy levels, reading a script that matches the text is exactly what you should do...perhaps calling attention to the most critical information with call-outs or highlights as they are being spoken with emphasis.
Regarding #5, would you recommend a guideline on what borders on interactive vs annoying?
ReplyDeleteGreat comments!
ReplyDeleteJeni -- Absolutely agree on the literacy issue. I wrote the tips on-the-fly; they were based on some (invisible) assumptions. My colleagues and I typically create based on an 8th Grade reading level. If analysis determines the need for closer alignment of text/narration/graphics, then such an approach is critical.
Aileen -- I generally use the old "minimum of one interaction every three pages" frequency guideline, but I think an "annoyance guideline" is a great idea. I don't believe a next button on every page is necessary, that's for sure. Subtlety can be a virtue -- low impact interactions (like having learners click to trigger an animation) can be useful if used judiciously. If you have the luxury of a pilot group to test, they can often tell you what's useful to propel them forward and what's getting in the way. Of course, all this has to work withing real-life constraints of time, consistency, etc.
Also, I'm a fan of Ruth Clark's work. She has useful ideas and strategies for balancing audio/graphics/text: http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/2/091002DES-H.pdf
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteThese are great tips. I too, wonder about number 5. While I agree with you, I also wonder about clicking for the sake of clicking as opposed to the click being meaningful. #4 is one that I constantly have to pay attention to as I sometimes feel like the graphics end of things is my weakness. Thanks.
Robert