What goes into making an effective eLearning program? In this article, we’ll outline the process we follow. And, in so doing, you’ll see why there is a broad consensus among instructional designers that a well-structured eLearning program provides the best means of “transferring cognitive skills” (i.e., achieving academic learning objectives).
How eLearning works
Although not all eLearning courses are the same, they generally follow this pattern:
- Content is divided into a series of short chapters. Each chapter typically covers no more than four to six learning objectives.
- At the end of each chapter, students must answer a series of questions designed to ensure they have adequately mastered the subject matter.
- If students answer most or all of the questions correctly, they progress to the next chapter.
- If students miss questions, the system explains what the correct answer is and why it is correct.
- Following this, students who failed the quiz must go back and review the preceding chapter before answering yet another set of assessment questions. While these questions test the same objectives as before, they are generally different. Thus, students cannot pass the quiz by remembering that “The answer t the first question is A.”
- Only when students can demonstrate adequate mastery of the material are they allowed to progress.
- To complete the course, students must successfully complete all chapters.
Among the variations on this:
- In many eLearning programs, students must spend a minimum number of minutes on each page before they can proceed.
- In some systems, students must correctly answer at least 80 percent of the assessment questions correctly to pass each quiz. In other systems, the passing score is higher. In some, it is 100 percent.
Why eLearning is more effective
A properly structured eLearning program will overcome most of the drawbacks associated with traditional approaches to academic learning. Here are some examples:
Classroom lectures
There is a general consensus among instructional designers that traditional classroom lectures are the least effective means of transferring cognitive skills. This is because their success depends on too many variables. Among them:
- The skill of the lecturer: While some lecturers can be very engaging, most are not. Many are downright boring. Unless a teacher can maintain students’ attention, learning will not take place.
- Student attention spans: Students who don’t pay attention don’t learn. This is sometimes a failing on the part of the student and sometimes the fault of the instructor.
- Student note-taking ability: Some students are excellent note-takers. Others are not. Students with poor note-taking skills are less likely to retain knowledge.
- Post-lecture study: Repetition and reinforcement are key to learning. Students who review their notes afterward and read related material learn better. Unfortunately, many do not.
Self-study
The term self-study can cover a broad area but, at its heart, it involves students reading. The problem is that most students don’t actually read their textbooks and other study materials. They skim them. This makes self-study less effective.
It is possible to increase the effectiveness of self-study by giving students a set of questions they must answer and turn in. This will help ensure they meet the stated learning objectives. This is a feature that is already built into eLearning.
Watching videos
A well-produced video can be a more effective learning tool than all but the most engaging classroom lectures. Among other things, it helps ensure that no critical information is left out.
The chief drawback of watching instructional videos is the lack of interaction. It is not as though students can pause a video and ask questions. And, should students fail to grasp a particular point, what follows may not make any sense.
All eLearning is not equal
There is a tendency on the part of some instructors to assume that all eLearning is the same. It isn’t. Just as some teachers are more effective than others, some eLearning programs shine while others fail dismally.
At Sinulogic, we’ve structured our eLearning development process so that it ensures students not only find the material engaging but that real learning takes place.
It starts with objectives
The first step in developing any learning material is to define the objectives. This is true not only for eLearning but for textbooks and lecture outlines as well.
A learning objective defines the capability students will achieve by going through the process. it can define when, where and how well students will do this. For example:
When asked, students will be able to list and correctly define each of the three states of buoyancy.
By defining these learning objectives at the onset, it helps ensure that any content you develop will be sufficient for all students to meet the state objectives.
Unless it is a topic we are already familiar with, we will generally work with a subject-matter expert to define the learning objectives for a particular course. People often make the mistake of assuming that, just because someone is a subject-matter expert, this automatically makes them a good writer or instructional designer. They generally are not.
However, when paired with a team of writers and designers who know what they are doing, the expert’s knowledge can be turned into highly effective learning materials.
But they can also be questions
Learning objectives don’t have to be expressed in the form you just read. They can also be stated as questions. This is important as the end-of-chapter questions eLearning students need to answer must test their master of the stated objectives.
Someone once said that the best way to develop a curriculum is to first write the final exam and only then create the content that will enable students to pass that exam. We agree totally.
The way most eLearning programs work is that each end-of-chapter quiz question is drawn at random for a pool of three or more questions that test the same objective. When creating these pools, we typically include:
- One multiple-choice question.
- One fill-in-the-blank question.
- One True/False question.
This way, should a student need to repeat a quiz, they will be tested on the same objectives but there is only a one-in-three chance they will be asked the same question twice.
Once we have developed all of the assessment question pools, we store them in a database along with the correct answer and an explanation of why each answer is correct. This facilitates the later uploading of both questions and answers to whatever eLearning platform we are using.
Content development
With the learning objectives and assessment questions established, the next step is to develop the content. The objectives will establish an outline for doing so.
eLearning content will be a mixture that may include text, photos, illustrations, diagrams and other graphics. Ideally, video will play a major part in this.
- In some instances, short videos will augment the text and images.
- In other instances, video will be the primary vehicle for conveying information to students. This is what we prefer.
This begs the question, when video is the chief mechanism for conveying information to students, what role do text and images play? This will depend on a variety of factors.
- We will frequently proceed the video with a short list of study questions based on the learning objectives. This helps students get more from the video.
- If nothing else, we will follow the video with a summary of key points. This helps reinforce what was learned. And, should students need to return to pages because they missed a test question, they may be able to get away with just reviewing the key points rather than watch the entire video again. (See example.)
- If the video is more of a “how-to” guide, we will often follow it with screenshots of key portions of the video along with explanatory text. It may help to have this open in one browser tab while following the steps outlined in another. (See example.)
Not like writing a textbook
The process of creating eLearning content is very different from writing a textbook. If not creating a video-based program, there are a number of things you will need to do.
- Web usability expert Dr. Jakob Nielsen points out the text on a computer screen is 25 percent harder to read and results in 25 percent poorer comprehension. As Nielsen puts it, you must learn to say twice as much in half as many words.
- You need to break up large blocks of text as much as possible. Paragraphs should never be more than two or three sentences. Use bullet points liberally; they result in better comprehension.
- Have a high ratio of images to text. If all your students see on screen are large blocks of unbroken text, you will lose them.
- Test for readability. The average American reads at an eighth-grade level. Even if your students are capable of reading at a higher grade level, they most likely won’t want to. Keep it simple and you will keep more of your students.
Things we do differently
As we said earlier, all eLearning programs are not the same. Sadly, we’ve seen some pretty crappy examples in our time. We strive to do better. Here are some examples:
- We keep chapters short, usually no more than is needed to a maximum of six end-of-chapter quiz questions. Any more than this and you increase the likelihood a student will mistakenly answer a question wrong, even though they understand the subject matter. This will kick students back to where they started and frustrate the Hell out of them. If your end-of-chapter quiz has too many questions, students will become convinced they can never pass it.
- Because our chapters are shorter, we can often confine them to a single page. This way, if students miss a question, they won’t be kicked back to the beginning of a multi-page chapter. Having to wade through multiple pages just so they can re-take the quiz only pisses students off.
- We don’t place arbitrary time limits for how long students must stay on a page. This accomplishes nothing. Once students realize they must stay on a page for, say, five minutes, they will simply open another browser tab and go do something else until time is up.
- One of the reasons we like using video is that, if you give students a three-minute video to watch, you know odds are they will stay on the page for three minutes to watch it.
- We always insist on a 100-percent passing score on quizzes. eLearning programs keep a permanent record of student performance. If the record shows that a student failed a pass a question that could adversely affect health and safety, their failure to do so could come back to haunt you.
Let us help
Whether your goal in offering eLearning is to create a saleable product or to better-trained employees, we can help. Contact us to get the ball rolling.