RKCS Learning Solutions

Earlier this week, I was involved in a forum discussion and another user asked for some advice about creating a course. In trying to create the course, he was operating under the premise that the modules created should be no longer than 15-20 minutes long, have 2-3 objectives and a couple other specifics which I am not remembering at this point. While its good to have a foundation, I’m not so sure I agree that there MUST be a specific number of items in every course. I’m not sure that every course needs to be a specific length. BUT, we do live in an age where information must be delivered fairly quickly and intensely in order to grab the majority of a learner’s attention. So, while the days of the 1 hour course are probably gone, I’m not sure I would lock a course into 20 minutes. Why? Well, here are a few of my thoughts:

1. You are assuming length ONLY by audio. There is no way to know how long the learner actually spends reading/exploring (assuming that you built in the option for the learner to explore **eyebrows raised**);

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In creating eLearning,I face a challenge that the majority of users do not face.  I have to listen to the same audio again, and again, and again, and again while I edit and build different sections of my modules.  This is fine.  In fact, its an expected part of the process.  However, I do notice that there are times where I begin to go to sleep almost immediately.  Yeah, that could be a compliment or maybe its not.  There are some Barry White-style voices that are soothing and relaxing. But likewise, there are some voices that, while reading, can become almost monotone.  Once I have heard these voices a screen or two, I almost begin to tune out.  Worse than that, if I am watching a module where not much else is happening on the screen or I am not interacting with the module in any way, I am forced to listen to the voice.  So what do I do?  Zone out…go to sleep….daydream.

OK.  So, now it’s time to put yourself in the seat of the learner.  Get rid of the ego for a moment.  Yeah, I know you put your blood, sweat and tears into this thing and it’s hard to hear criticism, but listen for a moment.  Don’t worry.  I have to pay attention to this myself so I’m not preaching at you.  But, put yourself in the learner’s chair for a moment.  What would you want to hear?  What would keep you interested?  What would keep you awake? Some of us have the liberty of hiring professional voice talent while others are forced to cost cut and do certain things themselves.  Just because the word “professional” is before the name does not always mean the voiceover artists don’t need feedback either.  So there are some basic things that can be done to help bring a little more life to your elearning.

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I received a tweet about tips for writing test questions on the Questionmark blog. Here is the list of tips they posted:

1. Keep stems and statements as short as possible and use clear, concise language.
2. Use questions whenever possible (What, Who, When, Where, Why and How).
3. Maintain grammatical consistency to avoid cueing.
4. List choices in a logical order.
5. Avoid negatives, especially double negatives.
6. Avoid unnecessary modifiers, especially absolutes (e.g. always, never, etc.).
7. Avoid “All of the above” and use of “None of the above” with caution.
8. Avoid vague pronouns (e.g. it, they).
9. Avoid conflicting alternatives.
10. Avoid syllogistic reasoning choices (e.g. “both a and b are correct”) unless absolutely necessary.
11. Avoid providing cues to correct answer in the stem.
12. Avoid providing clues to the answer of one question in another question.

From the beginning, my eyes focused in on number 7 because I knew that I had recently been guilty of this.  However, since this list did not say why to avoid this, I was curious about why that was.  While I have created assessment for my classroom and for some of my elearning modules for quite a while, I had never really come across this “rule” before.  So, I searched for a bit to find out the “why”.  On the University of Wisconsin’s website, they noted “Try to avoid ‘all of the above’ as a last option. If an examinee can eliminate any of the other choices, this choice can be automatically eliminated as well.” My takeaway? You’re making it too easy. It’s almost like eliminating two answers with one pass. I decided to search a bit more. Here is another find:

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I am really beginning to see the great thing about blogging. It causes you to read so much and therefore experience different perspectives. I met someone on twitter a couple of days ago and read his blog. His name is Dick Carl and he had a great post about failure. This struck a chord with me because I was in out of college before I learned that it was ok to fail. This is not a knock on my parents per se, but my upbringing really ingrained a fear of failure and even worse, that failure being found out. Of course, you don’t want the FAMILY talking about you. But, I should have realized that in my favorite sport, baseball, the GREAT hitters fail more than 65% of the time. Any major theory or invention that is brought to light has had more failures than successes. In life, most often failure is a mechanism by which we learn. So, why is it that in our learning systems, our educational institutions, failure is almost always punitive?

Dick had a great point about “gen-next” learners and video games. He noted that “failure there is the standard mode of learning.” It’s expected. Once you fail 3 times or however many times you are allotted, you power down or simply push the reset button and try it again. He then asked what our classrooms or eLearning modules would be like if failure was encouraged and demanded. I have developed a few modules where the client asked for the quiz to be made so that the learner could try as many times as they wanted instead of getting it wrong and that being it. Do you see this a viable learning option? I am of the opinion that I don’t rule anything out these days. Some people think that open book exams are counterproductive. I think that as long as a learner is interacting with the material in ANY way at all, then some learning is taking place. There are definitely moments and times that call for right and wrong. At some point learning does reach a critical moment. Example? When you come to a red light, you should not have to experience a head on collision a few times before your own light bulb comes on and says “Hey bro, hmmm, maybe you should stop next time.” There are definitely some circumstances where failure is NOT an option. But overall, maybe we really don’t give failure enough credit. What are your thoughts on this?

OK. So, the title is a bit long. But I found this interesting read by Cath Ellis called The 10 Commandments of eLearning. Her number 1, regarding putting the pedagogy first instead of the technology, is a ringing refrain that I have heard time and time again. Yet, there are still many examples of products and projects in which the tool is showcased instead of the learning.

Cath also notes that risks should be balanced with safety. Her premise there is that going online is a risky thing for some people and so the environment should be made safe with introductions, reflections and social activities. This is definitely true in a social networking sense and in an online classroom sense. This may not necessarily apply to the employee who is doing an online training because they have to. Additionally, let me present the flip side that some feel a little TOO safe online. Therefore they feel empowered to share information or communicate in a manner contrary to their normal behavior patterns. This can be positive and negative.

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