Isn’t this the dream of designers and clients alike? To
build a highly interactive, engaging, and effective eLearning course on a tight
budget. And by tight budget I refer to both time and resources: delivering a completed
course quickly and at low cost with few needed resources.
Well, just in case the above paragraph and title of this
entry has you excited, let me stop and clarify that this article will NOT
provide a recipe for creating a highly interactive and effective eLearning
course on a small budget.
I know – bummer, right?
I recently met with a prospective client who expressed the
desire for 63 hours of completed web-based training (WBT) at a level 3
interactivity (meaning inclusion of video, audio, branching scenarios,
customized feedback, and complex interactions). However the budget was only
$5,000-$10,000. Even applying development metrics for a level 1 WBT, it would be extremely difficult to pull that off.
While this request may be extreme, it does highlight an
important issue that arises frequently in the instructional design
field. Clients want quick courses, at a cheap price, and they want them to be
great. Not just great, but so great every learner magically knows everything they are supposed to
know. And if you aren’t willing to produce such a course, then someone will bid
lower than you to take that work.
The end result? More and more courses are created that, in my
opinion, are nowhere near the caliber they could have been in terms of
effectiveness and quality. More and more courses perpetuate the eLearning
stereotype of glorified PowerPoints with next buttons that adhere to the mantra
“let’s cram as much information as we can, throw it all at the learner in a
series of slides, and hope that knowledge miraculously sticks and our
performance/revenue/morale increases.”
For both the client and designer alike, it is frustrating.
So what did I do with the client who wanted a massive,
interactive, effective WBT for a tiny dollar amount? We had a long, informative
conversation over very good coffee during which I tried to stress a few key
pieces of knowledge.
Change will likely
not occur by throwing facts at learners.
Can we create lengthy rows of PowerPoint slides and fill
them with all the content you would ever want your employees to know? Sure.
Will your employees actually learn any of what is presented in those slides?
Probably not.
This is because learning involves change. And change
requires motivation and engagement. A good instructional designer can advise
you on the best way to motivate and engage your learners. If they suggest a
series of slides with text on them, find a new designer.
Just because you can
make a course doesn’t mean you should.
We are often requested to design courseware for clients who
want to jazz up their compliance training. Complaints are high in an area of
business ethics, equal employment opportunity, IT security, or harassment. They
want us to design a WBT that will solve this. But does the
organization actually know that training is the solution? Is it a lack of
knowledge on their employee’s part? There are so many other potential causes of
performance gaps (e.g. lack of motivation, unclear expectations, process
breakdowns, poor attitudes, unproductive working beliefs). Find an
instructional design team that can perform a comprehensive analysis of the
situation and advise you on the best path forward to get the change you desire.
Interaction is not the same as multi-media.
While the use of graphics, audio, and video can enhance your
courseware, the inclusion of multi-media does not generate automatic learner
engagement. My health insurance company recently released a series of “interactive”
videos that were supposed to assist me in making plan selections during open
enrollment. Although the video included my name on the title screen, I was not
engaged nor was it interactive.
Interactivity involves context and challenging activities. Find an instructional design team that can create meaningful interactions for your content.
Trust your instructional designer.
Did this message come across already? If you are
confident that you hired a knowledgeable and experienced instructional designer
or instructional design team, then trust their advice and opinions. While you
may not choose to take all of the advice, know that your designer has the best
interest of your learners at heart and wants to see your company and your
project to success.
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