There are very few
people out there who want life to be as difficult as possible. Most of us want
to do things and to learn things in the easiest way possible.
Luckily, when it comes
to presenting information, we’ve made progress in leaps and bounds in this
regard.
Old-school data analysis
First came charts and graphs, which significantly simplify text to demonstrate the relationship between and among data. Trends can be seen with ease.
Then came infographics, which aim to further simplify data presentation. Learners no longer need to be familiar with types of graphs and their characteristics. Instead they can be engaged in data interpretation in fun and colourful ways. Learners also receive an extra boost of context based on the design of the infographics.
Interactive infographics
Now the interactive infographics have arrived. These have all the benefits of the regular infographics but with the added benefit of encouraging thought and activation of prior knowledge. The Articulate Community recently did an eLearning Heroes Challenge on interactive infographics. Check out some of the submissions here.
Activating prior knowledge and encouraging thoughtful participation
Now, this post is not about how to create an interactive infographic; instead, it about how to ensure that there is ‘information interaction’ included in your ‘interface interactions’ (for more on this concept, see this previous post).
What’s the easiest way to get learners thinking about infographics? Withhold the information until they have made a guess about the answer. Check out the example below of a tiny piece of an infographic.
Notice how it makes you think more deeply about the content than if you were simply presented with the information from the start? It also helps with making connections to your prior knowledge at the same time. It may have even made you do a quick internet search for more information. Activating prior knowledge can help make learning last by creating links to the new information.
Now, I’m still on the fence about full-on gamification (I need to learn more before I can develop an informed opinion), but adding in small elements of gamification (for example a score, a countdown timer, or a leaderboard) could further encourage learners to answer the questions with more thought or enthusiasm.
Conclusion
As with most things in
life, a bit of interactivity increases interest. As with most things eLearning,
the type of interactivity that actually encourages learning is information
interaction. Before building your interactive infographics, consider how you
can encourage your learners to engage thoughtfully with the content, rather
than just clicking away.
In my post last week, I mentioned that company branding is important, and learners like to see consistency from course-to-course. Yet, as a developer this can feel like you are locked in a box. It just may be one of the quickest ways to stifle your creativity!
To break through this prison of corporate
branding, I decided to go on a journey through nature’s oceans, jungles, poles,
and more to re-ignite my creativity. (A figurative journey, of course – I’m not
exactly an adventure junkie!)
Every couple of months, I will select an
image of nature and use it as a source of inspiration to create some type of
learning product (a template, a learning object, etc.). I’ll post it here along
with commentary on how I was inspired.
Today’s image is the owl.
For
my learning product, I used Storyline to create a template for a button
interaction.
The first thing that stood out to me was
the contrast in colour of the bright orange eyes and the grey feathers. Then I
was struck by the gentle texture of the feathers and the intricate details of
the wisps of the feathers. Then I noticed the different surfaces of the shiny
eyes, the soft, fluffy feathers, and the dull beak.
Although colour is an obvious choice, I
decided to use the striking colour as inspiration anyway. I rarely use such a
strong colour, so I was excited to find a way to bring in a bright colour
without feeling too 80’s neon. I believe the pop of orange against the dull
green and grey feels cheerful and isn’t overwhelming.
I don’t usually use textures, so I enjoyed
the challenge of incorporating them without causing cognitive overload.
Although the texture in the background is quite obvious, with the opaque grey
overlay, it does not distract from the content.
The final aspect I wanted to create was a
shine. I was planning to add a faded and transparent white arc over the orange
circles to give a bit of a glimmer. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, it
didn’t seem to fit with the style and feel that I have chosen for this
template. So, I left it out. In retrospect, choosing three aspects of the image
for inspiration might have been overkill!
Last week I explored the reasons that consistency is important within a single course. This week I’ll look at whether it is just as important to maintain consistency from course to course.
For this post, I wanted to look at various perspectives like I did last week, but I struggled to find them. I already examined the perspective of cognitive theory last week, and I couldn’t find relevant information from the research on engagement. Therefore, I will focus today solely on the realm of marketing.
From the realm of marketing
I recently read an article by Shep Hyken about how Apple’s brand has developed fanatics. Although I’m actually not a fan of Apple, even I must admit they have done an excellent job roping in clients and making them devotees.
One of the 3 characteristics
he discusses regarding branding is consistency. He states that “Customers want
to know what to expect. A consistent, predictable experience gives the customer
confidence.” (Hyken, 2018). Now, he isn’t just referring to the look of Apple, but also the interactions
with the company. Regardless, consistency is important for marketing.
Another interesting article on consistency comes from the blog of Mighty Fine Design Co. This article discusses many important aspects of consistency in branding. A few of their points are really useful to learning experience designers.
Firstly, consistency builds trust. Secondly, consistency is comfortable. And thirdly, consistency is invisible. This last point was the most interesting to me. They state that when something is not consistent it makes us uncomfortable. We don’t always know why or what is inconsistent, but we know that it doesn’t quite fit.
This is a particularly valuable lesson when it comes to learning. Learners will subconsciously feel when a course just doesn’t quite match, and it can lead to an almost imperceptible negative emotion that ultimately suppresses learning. For more on how negative emotions suppress, check out the article by Margie Meacham.
Conclusion
Although the research related to inter-course consistency is slim, it does seem to lean in the direction of keeping things consistent. Personally, I flip flop on this issue frequently because I see pros and cons of a consistent look as well as mixing things up. I had hoped to have a more clear answer after my research this week, but things aren’t as clear-cut as I want them to be. What are your thoughts on consistency between courses: essential, pointless, or somewhere in between?
The phrase “consistency is key” is so ingrained in a learning experience designer’s mind that it is always a shock when someone, usually of a different profession, desires otherwise.
When I began a new job, I was told that the
higher ups wanted as much variety as possible in our eLearning courses, and
that meant that every slide should look different from every other, and that as
many different interactions as possible should be used. I was told that our
learners get bored quickly and variety is required to keep them engaged.
I couldn’t convince them otherwise. Even my
old trustworthy argument, “I’m designing in a way that works best for the
content – each slide’s design depends on the actual content that will be put on
it and how the learner will learn best” was met with stony silence.
As a new employee, I did exactly what was
asked of me. But now, I wonder how I could have done a better job explaining
the importance of consistency – or, was I just plain wrong?
A. From the realm of graphic design
Although I am by no means a graphic designer, I do know a few of the basic principles. The first things I ever learned about graphic design were the CRAP principles. Contrast-Repetition-Alignment-Proximity are good guidelines for a novice designer to follow.
Although it uses a different word, repetition gets at the concept of consistency. According to Robin Williams, you should “Repeat visual elements of the design throughout the piece…this develops the organization and strengthens unity” (Williams, 2015). In my mind, the visual elements described by Williams could refer to the assets on the slide, such as buttons, text boxes, pictures, etc., as well as interactive elements and animations. From a purely visual perspective, it seems that consistency is our friend.
B. From the realm of multimedia learning theory
It doesn’t matter how great the graphic
design is, as we know, there is much more to learning than physical appearance.
That is where multimedia learning theory comes in. It can tell us why developing
organization and strengthening unity (as described by Williams) is so
important.
Richard Mayer is the guru of multimedia learning design. One concept he writes of frequently is extraneous overload. This is a type of cognitive overload that occurs when the essential processing and the extraneous processing combined are greater than the learner’s cognitive capacity (Mayer, 2014). In plain words, this means that the learner’s brain is overwhelmed by the combination of brain power required to manage the content plus brain power required to look at unhelpful images, navigation, animations, etc.
Due to the limited capacity of the human
brain, Mayer recommends following a number of multimedia principles designed to
reduce extraneous overload. One of these principles is called the coherence
principle. This principle states that people learn better when extra material
(that which is not required for learning) is excluded rather than included.
Having a variety of irrelevant images, a
large number of fonts and colours, confusing navigation, or flying, flipping, and
twirling animations all add to the extraneous material that should be excluded.
This means that a consistent look, with consistent navigation, and only the
essential information aids in learning.
When the learner doesn’t need to think
about where to look next, how to interpret the content on the slide, or how to
move on to the next slide, then the coherence principle has been followed. From
a multimedia learning theory perspective, it seems that consistency is the goal.
C. From the realm of cognitive theory
From both a visual perspective and a
learning perspective, consistency is key. But how does consistency make us
feel?
Apparently, the desire for predictability
is an innate human characteristic. Humans act based on the consequence of
previous actions. We expect that what happens once will happen again
(Glaserfeld, 1997). We expect that the layouts, colour schemes, and navigation
that we see in a course will be replicated throughout the course. This helps us
understand how to interact with the course.
This point should be particularly
interesting to constructivists. A major strategy of constructivism is to
provide context to all that is taught. This works because learners expect that
what happened in the past will repeat itself in the same way.
Conclusion
From graphic design to cognitive theory, research suggests that there should be internal consistency in a course. Once learners understand the navigation and know what to expect when they see certain layouts, the level of extraneous processing dips. But what about consistency from course-to-course? Is it just as important to keep the same format for different training topics? Check out the part 2 next week for more information.
Anyone who’s know me for any period of time knew that this post was coming! One of my pet peeves is when learning experience designers/ instructional designers/ eLearning developers use the term “engagement” incorrectly.
There are two common ways that the term “engagement” is interpreted. The first interpretation is that learners are engaged when learners click, hover, and swipe their way through a course. I call this interface interaction. Often, this goes hand-in-hand with the idea that appealing graphics are the key to increasing engagement. The second interpretation is that learners are engaged when they think deeply about the course content. I call this information interaction.
So, which do I believe is the correct interpretation? I believe that true engagement comes from information interaction. I believe it to the core of my being. That’s not to say that interface interaction doesn’t have its place, but it’s not what will grab a learner’s attention and keep them coming back for more.
Unfortunately, there are many vendors and
consultants that advertise their ability to engage audiences with unique
interactions, treasure hunts, and gameshow-style activities. They further the
misconception that interface interaction actually promotes learning.
Cammy Bean notoriously coined the term clicky-clicky bling-bling to describe how dry, boring courses often add useless but punchy interface interactions to make up for poor instructional design. She’s among those leading the charge against the concept of engagement through interface interaction.
Another designer at the forefront of this battle is Cathy Moore. She is the mastermind behind action mapping, which is particularly useful for training for behaviour change. Action mapping is a process for creating useful training and avoiding information dumps.
Strategies for engagement
So, how do you engage through information interaction? Well, it all starts with good learning experience design. Srividya Kumar over at eLearning industry wrote a great article about this topic, it’s definitely worth a read.
1. Start with stories
My own approach to engagement begins with
my favourite WIIFM strategy: stories. I work in occupational health and safety,
which means that there’s an abundance of stories about accidents and
consequences. I try to begin every module with a short but compelling story to
grab attention and provide context (two birds with one stone!). If you don’t
have any real-life stories, feel free to create a realistic story of your own.
2. Prime learner’s brains
Learners like to know what to expect in a
course. Confusing chunking, unorganized sequencing, or tricky navigation can
distract from a learner’s attempt to engage. Thus, it’s helpful to prime the learner’s brains before
learning. Once you put nuggets of ideas in their brains, they perk up when they
get to the relevant section of the course (a little bit like Inception).
Sometimes stories are enough for this. If
not, you could add in question-style learning objectives to each module.
Instead of dry bulleted lists of objectives that are ignored by learners, instead
ask learners to reflect on questions that are derived from these objectives.
For example, rather than “By the end of this course you will know how to load a
mobile elevating work platform for transportation”, try using “Do you know how
to load a mobile elevating work platform for transportation?”
3. Allow for learner control
Although various stakeholders can be very insistent about locking navigation, it is in the learner’s best interest to have some form of control. What that looks like depends on the course. It could be the ability to move at your own pace, to skip slides, or to skip entire modules based on performance on a pre-test. Nothing makes people tune out of a course faster than “learning” something they already know.
4. Personalize the course
To move one step beyond learner control,
personalize the course to the learner. Personalizing can go above allowing for
selection of modules based on pre-test scores. For example, you can personalize
a course by modifying the stories and scenarios based on characteristics of the
learners, by changing questions or question types, and by presenting content in
a different context.
5. Remove the fluff
This may seem obvious, but ensure you are
focusing on the need-to-know content
and eliminating the nice-to-know
content. Overwhelming learners with content can prevent them from engaging.
Often you can provide the additional information in a job aid or a link for
interested learners.
6. Present bite-sized content, then build on it
For the initial presentation, communicate
the content one topic at a time. This allows learners to develop competency and
build confidence in specific topics and allow them to expertly navigate
scenarios. Just don’t overdo it when it comes to chunking the information – you
don’t want learners tuning out because they feel the course is too dumbed down.
After the initial presentation, feel free
to encourage learners to think back to previous modules to combine their
knowledge. Not only will they need to think deeply about the content, it will
also help with recall post-training.
7. Keep learners on track
Reading slide after slide of information
provides few opportunities for deep information interaction. Be sure to include
knowledge checks along the way. These don’t need to be tests to evaluate if the
learner has passed the course (Assessments of Learning; AoL), they can be
quizzes to provide feedback (Assessments for Learning; AfL) or reflection
points to promote metacognition (Assessment as Learning; AaL).
8. Scenarios
I like to end my courses similar to how
they start – more stories! But at the end I present the stories in the form of
a scenario that the learner must navigate by using the knowledge gained in the
course. These scenarios are particularly engaging if they are realistic and if
they allow the learner to be the hero of the scenario.
Conclusion
Without a doubt in my mind, information interaction beats interface interaction 100% of the time. What do you think about engagement and interface interaction versus information interaction?
[Editorial note: I originally planned to post this in January, but it took a little longer than expected to get my website off the ground… sorry for such a late ‘New Years’ post]
After completing my master’s in Instructional Design and Technology at the end of 2018, I decided to make some learning experience design goals for myself for 2019… before I got used to having free time again. I know my goals are ambitious, but I’m an eager beaver with extra time on my hands!
I’ve decided to make my list of goals according to the alphabet. I thought it would be hard to come up with an idea for each letter – instead I found it difficult to choose between several ideas for the same letter. I finally narrowed down my list to a series of goals that will stretch me and shape me as an instructional designer this year.
My list
A Adapt (rapid eLearning tool)
B Blogging about ID
C Character Animator
D Design (visual design)
E Evolve (rapid eLearning tool)
F Feedback (develop highly personalized feedback strategies)
G Gamification (learn more about it and see if it’s for me)
H Heroes (continue doing eLearning heroes challenges)
I Illustrator
J Join ID communities
K Keynote summaries (post summaries of keynotes from conferences)
L Lectora
M Meetings (attend 2-3, including online summits with the eLearning guild)
N Negative space (make better use of it)
O Objectives (improve construction of objectives)
P Photoshop
Q Quality over quantity (despite a manager’s desires)
R Research (continue to research in the field of ID)
S SME wrangling (develop skills to get the most out of my SMEs)
T Talk (present a talk at a conference)
U UI/UX
V Variety (stretch my capabilities of design and development)
W Writing (improve specific aspects – for example remembering to use contractions)
X Xerox (“steal” from other professions, e.g., marketing – AIDA, WIIFM, etc.)
Y YouTube (update my channel)
Z Zapworks
What items to you have on your list of goals for 2019?
