E-LEARNING GUIDELINES

Primary components of e-learning 1. Learner motivation 2. Learner interface 3. Content structure 4. Navigation 5. Interactivity

1-Motivation  With no fuel, it doesn’t matter how well your car designed, nor how spacious is the trunk.  The more motivated to learn, the stronger the focus and the greater the readiness to do what’s necessary to accomplish the task.

2-Learner Interface  Going to start to shutdown your computer.  Moving your disk to trash can to eject it.

Learner Interface  When the consistency of conventions is broken, even a single one, learners become uncertain about whether other conventions are also inconsistent.  Therefore, even a single interface error (e.g, a wrong link) may lead to widespread user anxiety and discomfort. (missing steps in Flash)

3- Content Structure Which one?  Content-centric design  Learner-centric design

Content-Centric If learners only need dissemination of information  Learners are highly motivated  The information is readily understood  Skills can be learned without guidance  Each step can be prompted and guided as it is performed.

Learner-Centric Design  Mystery novels vs. textbooks. Which one more easily attracts readers?  Learner-centric designs focus on creating events that continuously intrigue learners as the content unfolds (successive approximation)

4- Navigation (unlike a textbook)  We can’t see all the content of an instructional application on the screen at one time  You cannot assess e-learning so quickly  You cannot say if they’re small, medium, or large, well illustrated, highly interactive, truly individualized.

Navigation services Overall the ability to  Back up and review  Back up and try different answers or options  Skip ahead, preview, and return  Bookmark and return to points of interest or concern  Call up services such as glossaries or examples  Restart and resume where you left off

5- Interactivity  Actively stimulates the learner’s mind to do things that improve ability and readiness to perform effectively

Interactivity is not the same as  Navigation  Buttons  Scrolling  Browsing  Info retrieval  Paging  Morhping  Video  animation

Magic keys

1-Build on anticipated outcomes  Help learners see how their involvement in the e- learning will produce outcomes they care about.  Don’t list objectives- Why?  Instead put the learner to work (they will realized the objectives)

2- Put the learner at risk  If learners have something to lose, they pay attention.  Don’t baby your learners- let them make mistakes don’t worry about ratings.

3- Select the right content for each learner  If it’s meaningless or learners already know it (not enjoyable)

What’s interesting?  Learning how your knowledge can be put to new and valuable uses  Understanding something that has always been puzzling  Discovering talents and capabilities you didn’t know you had.

Start with test Isn’t unfair to ask learners to do a task for which you haven’t prepare them?

4- Use appealing context  Novelty, suspense, fascinating graphics, humor, sound, music, animation- all draw learners in when it is done well.

Don’t start from the bottom of the skills hierarchy Sometimes it starts at the end.

5- Have the learner perform multiple tasks  Having people attempt real (authentic) tasks is much more interesting than having them repeat or mimic one step at a time.  Instead of teaching +-*/ repeatedly give then an authentic multi-steps task

6- Provide intrinsic feedback  Let learners see for themselves weather or not their answer (performance) works as well as it needs to.  Seeing the positive consequences of good performance in better feedback than being told, “yes, that was good”

7- Delay judgment  If learners have to wait for confirmation, they will typically reevaluate their answers for themselves.  Sometime it’s appropriate to give immidiate feedback, but often it isn’t.  A good mentor allows learners to make mistakes and then helps them understand why the mistakes occurred and also their consequences

Good & Bad examples of Interactivity  Bad Example 1 Bad Example  Bad Example 2 Bad Example  Good Example Good Example