Designing eLearning for Cognitive Ease

Article Title: Designing eLearning for Cognitive Ease

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Daniel Kahneman dedicates a chapter to the topic of cognitive ease in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. This article suggests how some of the findings Kahneman presents can benefit eLearning design.

The amount of time spent on eLearning may influence mood, too. Long lessons may leave learners wondering if they’ll ever end, while a series of short lessons can help create a sense of progress. Shorter lessons can also help prompt learners take a brief break and re-energize if they’re feeling mentally fatigued.

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Being a Good Coach through eLearning Feedback

Article Title: Being a Good Coach through eLearning Feedback

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: The principles that coaches follow to work with children’s soccer teams also apply to writing feedback for eLearning scenarios. This article urges instructional designers to go beyond telling learners that an answer to a question is “incorrect,” and it suggests methods for working coaching techniques into feedback.

This approach could also feed into a larger remediation strategy for struggling learners. For instance, learners who answer all questions correctly might only need to complete a couple of scenarios. Learners who answer several questions incorrectly could move into another segment of training with additional practice scenarios. In doing so, you might transition to the remediation portion with a slide that reminds learners of key content, urges them to apply lessons learned from earlier scenarios to the ones that follow, and offers an encouraging statement about their probable success.

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Sparking Innovation in Your eLearning Design

Article Title: Sparking Innovation in Your eLearning Design

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Inspired by another article about innovation, this piece takes the advice of how to inspire new ideas and translates it into instructional design techniques that can inspire learners during training. 

Granted, people naturally tend to reflect on their experiences to some extent. But if our training is too fast paced, learners might not get a chance to consciously recognize what they’ve learned and cement that learning. Fortunately, we can prompt learners to reflect through individual activities, confidence measures, and insightful discussions.Social media in training can work wonders for this, too.

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Encore: Employee Engagement Matters for E-Learning

Article Title: Employee Engagement Matters for E-Learning

Publication: Elearning! Magazine (March/April 2011)

Summary: This article first appeared on the Integrated Learnings: eLearning site, and was reprinted (with permission) in Elearning! Magazine.

According to most definitions, an “engaged” employee is a high-quality performer who takes personal responsibility to work toward the success of an organization. This article explores how an organization’s level of employee engagement influences the effectiveness of eLearning. It also suggests how training professionals can use their core skills to help to enhance employee engagement in their organizations.

Click here to read the full article in Elearning! Magazine.

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What Can eLearning Learn from “7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain?”

Article Title: What Can eLearning Learn from “7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain?”

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Inspired by Tom Chatfield’s TED talk, this article recaps his ideas about how video games engage and motivate players. The piece offers specific ideas for applying these principles to the instructional design of eLearning.

Even if we didn’t design an eLearning course with an instructor-led blend, we can still work in a collaborative element. How about encouraging learners to discuss an eLearning course on an internal discussion board or other form of social media? Getting managers to discuss training with employees before, during, and/or after the event also adds this collaborative element.

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Employee Engagement Matters for eLearning

Article Title: Employee Engagement Matters for eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: According to most definitions, an “engaged” employee is a high-quality performer who takes personal responsibility to work toward the success of an organization. This article explores how an organization’s level of employee engagement influences the effectiveness of eLearning. It also suggests how training professionals can use their core skills to help to enhance employee engagement in their organizations.

To systematically enhance engagement, it must be measured (typically done through a survey)…and the organization must act on the results. Unfortunately, many companies fail to act on survey results, which can actually lead to negative consequences like frustration, disillusionment, and distrust on the part of employee respondents. I’m not going to claim that you can transform a group into a highly engaged workforce overnight. But, you can help an organization make progress.

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7 Techniques to Capture Attention in eLearning

Article Title: 7 Techniques to Capture Attention in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Whether you’re a seasoned instructional designer or someone who passed a high school speech class once upon a time, you can probably appreciate the need to gain your audience’s attention before presenting information. Many theorists have written about the importance of gaining and maintaining learners’ attention, and this article describes seven strategies for doing just that.

–6– State expectations: Since training should result in specific on-the-job behaviors, inform learners of what will be expected of them after training (and how they’ll be held accountable). Learners should also be informed of how they’ll be held accountable for learning during training (e.g., assessments, development plan, online discussion, etc.). Of course, this element should be a part of every course.

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4 Reasons We Procrastinate – And What You Can Do about It

Article Title: 4 Reasons We Procrastinate – And What You Can Do about It

Publication: InternetCE (insurance continuing education)

Summary: Procrastination is one of those things we’re all guilty of from time to time…and some more frequently than others.  Despite the fact that keeping up with insurance continuing education credits is critical for many insurance professionals, this training often falls victim to procrastination. Why do we do it? This article explains four common reasons that people put off their continuing education and how to overcome them.

Some people enjoy the thrill of sprinting to get something done at the last minute. Regardless of your ability to perform other tasks in a pinch, experts agree that we just don’t learn well that way. Cramming doesn’t work, because the brain is only capable of processing a limited amount of information at a time. That’s why taking periodic breaks during a course can actually help us retain more.

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Writing to Educate and Entertain: What Would Stephen King Do?

Article Title: Writing to Educate and Entertain: What Would Stephen King Do?

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Most instructional designers I know are decent technical writers, but many are not as adept at creative writing. However, to keep learners motivated during an eLearning course, designers should apply the techniques of creative writing and technical communication to learning theory’s best practices. This article, inspired from a literature review recently published in Performance Improvement Journal, theorizes about what techniques an accomplished fiction author like Stephen King might apply when writing for eLearning.

What an intriguing question. What would someone like Stephen King (or any acclaimed fiction author) make it a point to do if he had to write for eLearning? Borrowing ideas from the rest of Iverson’s article and reflecting on my own experience, below are some answers that come to mind.

I’ve been on a style and learner engagement kick lately, and I have two other recent posts related to this topic:

• Visual Storytelling: Lessons from Slide:ology
• A Formula for Storytelling in eLearning

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10 Factors that Affect Learning

Article Title: 10 Factors that Affect Learning

Publication: InternetCE blog (insurance continuing education)

Summary: From lifestyle to momentary circumstance, many types of factors affect our ability to learn new information. Not all are easy to control; however, knowing what what those factors are can help you get the most out of a course or other learning experience. This article explains ten factors that affect learning and offers advice on how to positively influence each.

Take frequent breaks. With a busy schedule, it can be tempting to plow through an online course as quickly as possible. But if you’re skimming the content and clicking ahead quickly, how much can you really expect to remember later? If you genuinely want to learn, slow down your pace and take frequent breaks. The breaks allow time to process segments of new information and help keep you attentive.

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