Do E-Learning Authoring Tools Inhibit Good Instructional Design?
This wouldn't be the first time that I've ranted about boring, page-turning e-learning. But this is the first time that I've specifically linked part of the problem with e-learning to authoring tools.
Now before I get started, I want to be clear. I'm not suggesting that authoring tools are a complete waste of space. Far from it. In so many ways they have opened up e-learning to a swathe of people who in the early days of the medium were excluded from using it purely on the grounds of cost.
But this opening up has also introduced as many problems as it has solved. Let me explain.
Many people out there developing e-learning know little or nothing about learning or instructional design. This doesn't mean you have to hold a degree in instructional design course to create good learning. Goodness knows, some of the worst courses I've seen have been created by people who are so over-qualified, they've lost the ability to be truly spontaneous and creative.
But if your only credentials for creating some e-learning are your subject matter expertise, unless you are blessed with innate skills, you and your learners are likely screwed.
In these circumstances, at best you will get a series of linear, content-centric screens with a few interactions or bits of multimedia thrown in for good measure. At worst, a series of densely-packed screens of content - mostly text with a few graphics or pics here and there. An e-book by another name!
And this is my point about authoring tools. People with no learning or design experience, but lots of subject matter expertise will do what most of us would do in this situation - grab on to the structure provided by the authoring tool for dear life.
If just the idea of using any kind of authoring tool is daunting, you are likely to stick with the basic features. If you are a little more confident or ambitious, you'll probably get creative and use some of the more 'advanced' features - most likely the interactions.
Either way, it's the authoring tool directing and controlling your creativity rather than the other way around. Effective and enjoyable e-learning this does not make.
Effective, performance-improving e-learning requires developers to "think different" and catapult themselves out of the authoring tool straitjacket.
The good news? There is a four-pronged approach to e-learning development which doesn’t require you to abandon your favourite authoring tool. Instead it helps you use your authoring tool to develop truly engaging learning, rather than letting the authoring tool’s available features narrow and control your instructional thinking.
So what’s it all about?
Banish all thoughts of Liverpool and the Cavern Club from your mind and instead embrace the e-learning Fab Four: Context, Challenge, Activity and Feedback. Each of these overlapping components helps you to think differently about your e-learning.
Context
An authentic context provides a situation that learners can relate to and care about. It makes learners think about the applicability of their learning. Just as important, it sets the scene for an equally authentic learning challenge.
Challenge
A challenge stimulates the brain. It forces the learner to think about what they know already, process new information they are presented with and decide what action to take.
Well-designed challenges build on the context previously set. They require learners to consider various courses of action and select the most appropriate path.
Activity
A challenge for your learners means they need to take action. Well-designed activities will feel natural. In other words, similar to the kind of actions the learner would make back in the real world (taking into account the limitations of the e-learning environment, of course).
Feedback
If you’ve ever taken an e-learning course, you’ll likely have experienced this kind of feedback:
“Congratulations, that’s the right answer”. “Sorry, that’s not right. Have another go”.
This is entirely the wrong kind of feedback, but exactly the kind authoring tools encourage you to create. What's the problem with it? It simply focuses your learners on winning approval.
Instead, you need feedback that demonstrates successful (or poor) performance. This is called intrinsic feedback. It lets learners see the effects of their decisions or actions. And it links back meaningfully to the context, challenge and activity.
Weaving these four components together results in a very different course from one produced using the more familiar screen-driven, content-centric approach. The learning that’s created truly reflects what the learner needs to know and do in their world of work.
Learn more about this four-pronged approach and other boredom-busting e-learning techniques...
