My experience as a designer is what drives my media preferences, and those preferences lie in the area of electronic learning media, or eLearning as it is commonly known. My experience as a trainer initially made me suspicious of eLearning. I thought such things as "These computers are going to take my job" or "How could a computer ever do as a good of a job as a real, live trainer?"
As I have come to learn more about eLearning (in the interest of disclosure, I still have A LOT more to learn) and I find it to be a very engaging, flexible and portable family of media. Specifically, I like computer based training. I like it to include simulations that represent, as realistically as possible, real life situations my learners will actually face they get into the job for which they are training. I like to make them interactive so as to make them more engaging. I also like to not only show them how to perform a task, but also to incorporate elements that show the learners how to locate information in online resources that they all have available to them. I wish I could show you an example, but unfortunately all of my stuff is proprietary.
There is plenty of good, as well as bad, examples of eLearning out there and I like to look at them all to see what works and what does not. One thing I always avoid is the click, read, click, read format (or PowerPoint on the Web) of computer-based training. That is more like an online picture book and less like actual learning.
The method I generally follow is Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction (which can be found in Reiser & Dempsey, p. 41):
- Gain attention
- Inform the learner of the objectives
- Stimulate recall of prior learning (this allows the learner to participate by constructing his/her own learning.)
- Present the stimulus (present the information via text, image, simulation, Flash animation, etc.)
- Provide learning guidance (to promote encoding)
- Elicit performance (Provide an opportunity to practice, simulation, information search, etc.)
- Provide feedback (Let them know how they did so they know if and what needs more work)
- Assess performance
- Enhance retention and transfer (Provide examples or activities)
5 comments:
My wife, who is an instructional designer, has developed a lot of eLearning instruction. They are all of the things you mentioned. Mostly, the learner can use it at their own computer on there own time when it is needed or convenient.
I can remember when computers were starting to be used more and more in the workplace and people were so scared of being replaced by them. They have, to a certain extent (like robots being used on an assembly line instead of people). But I think they have increased the need for people who need to operate or even repair and maintain them. I can also recall a boss talking about having a "paperless office", but that never came about either :0
First--you have changed your page! It threw me off for a second.
Secondly, thanks for the refresher/expanded info on Gagne. You have such a different wealth of information from the public ed side that I always learn so much from your blogs.
It is important to know that there are good and bad examples of using technology. It seems like you try to make learning engaging for your students. If all they did was click and read I am sure that they would get bored real quick.
I totally agree about some CBT resembling Power Point on the web. I think it is good that you strive to make your CBT interactive. I have encountered vendor-supplied CBT in the workplace in that click-read-click-read format you mentioned. These products seemed to produce little transfer to job skills.
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