I wasted my time with this activity where you create the next iPhone. Playing around with the site reminded me of a few fundamental principles that are often overlooked when building interactive eLearning; so here are a few quick thoughts.
Traditional e-learning is basically boring.
I know there are good courses. But I’ve seen thousands of courses from large and small organizations and they are mostly bland and uninteresting. There are various reasons for this, but the key problem is that these courses are created in ignorance of the needs of those who take them (or are forced to take them).
I guess if the end user had to pay for the courses (and organizations need that money) the courses would be better. But until an organization sees the end user as a consumer in the same way it sees its customers, most eLearning will continue to be what it is today.
How to design good interactivity.
I always see interactive e-learning as two considerations: touch the screen and apply the content. How to get a person into the course? Content should be constructed into a meaningful narrative that engages the person. But there is also a place where you can make the person “touch the screen” where they can interact with things on the screen. Turn three graphic markers into three cards. Get rid of the next button and find a different way to navigate the path. There are various ways to do this, but the key is to get them to interact with the course.
The second part, which is more than the novelty of the first, is to get the user to interact with the content. Most courses fail because the user just consumes the content without being asked to do anything or apply it in any meaningful way. Build real-world decision-making activities where they don’t just get content, they use it.
What can I learn from a time-wasting activity?
Obviously something like an iPhone builder is not easy to build as an e-learning course. And the goal of a real course is not to waste time (unless it’s one of those time-based compliance courses). However, there are things that happen in that place that we can gather that relate to the online learning experience.
- It’s fun to build a phone. There is value in building. It allows a person to explore and play with ideas. Look at the last course you made. What kind of meaningful play activity can be incorporated into the course? This is probably difficult for a lot of eLearning content, but it can be more than you think. If you need ideas, ask in the eLearning community.
- Recognize the “what ifs”. One of the challenges with most courses is that we have to question and assess for assessment purposes rather than understanding how a person learns. If things were open in the course, we could let people play with “what ifs” while learning. “What if I choose this option?” “What happens if I add too much of this or respond with this type of response?” Give people opportunities to test other answers or make bad decisions to see what happens.
- Don’t give them all the answers. Instead, set a challenge and let them figure it out. Give them resources. Give them advice. Give them instructions. But let them figure out what they need. Obviously, somewhere in the process you have to check in to see what’s going on and what they’ve learned. But what if the course was more research with an expectation of a certain result, and you just give them the tools to get there?
I know this is a lot to think about for many eLearning courses. Some of it is a bit novel. Some of it is probably too radical. But if we don’t push things a bit, we’ll be where we are now, which is pretty much where we were thirty years ago.
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