Creative, interactive ideas!

May 20, 2016

Hi 

Looking for some ideas please?!  I will be creating an eLearning course on Ladder Safety / Working At Heights in the near future and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make this as interactive as possible for the user?  This previously was a classroom based course with interaction and now being moved onto the eLearning platform.  Looking to perhaps think about gamification too.....  Any ideas are greatly appreciated! 

Thanks :)

18 Replies
Julie Stelter

Hi Laura,

I'm working on a similar course where ladder work is just one aspect of the training. I have been using a combination of the following:

  • using the space between the rungs of an illustrated ladder to act as bullet points for the different content.
  • adding some storytelling to emphasize what happens to people that don't use a ladder safely. Threat of death and bodily harm gets everyone's attention :)
  • I used some humor because I found an image of a ladder with a baby sitting at the top of the ladder. Photoshopped, I hope. Discussion is centered around, would you do this with your baby? Don't do it yourself.
  • I also added some gamification with quiz questions. Moving a person up the ladder when they get the answer right. 

Cheers,

Julie

Brenda Tyedmers

Hi Laura,

Because (as you know) working safely is about recognizing and controlling the hazards to minimize risk to acceptable levels, I'd suggest having the learner spot different hazards and make the correction. E.g., if the ladder is too steep, move it out, if it's in the wrong configuration or at an angle or on uneven or soft ground etc., make the correction. (And being able to recognize when a ladder is not the right tool for the job, overhead wires etc.) 

I would suggest having some easily recognizable hazards to have the learner respond to  at the beginning of the training, to draw them in to the learning (and see what they know already) .  This is a fun and meaty subject with lots of visual possibilities! I'm sure you'll have fun with it.

Tania Vercoelen

Hi Laura,

What about a snakes and ladders inspired game? They move up the ladder for correct answers and incorrect answers they could slide down pole/snake/fall off ladder. I found a thread of a cool snakes and ladders game by Darren. https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/my-first-game-snakes-and-ladders

 

 

Bruce Graham

Remember what the "core" is here Laura.

I was once asked to produce the same sort of thing for a steel company.

It had a dull title, and they asked me how to ad some "pizazz" to the course. The start was by suggesting a change in the title, from "xxx 101" to "How not to kill yourself and keep down our insurance premiums". You can always include statistics, and opportunities to be gained from compliance., but it is ESSENTIAL not to "preach" because people will see that as condescending., and it will just be "another HR/H&S course".

michelle eames
Tania Vercoelen

Hi Laura,

What about a snakes and ladders inspired game? They move up the ladder for correct answers and incorrect answers they could slide down pole/snake/fall off ladder. I found a thread of a cool snakes and ladders game by Darren. https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/my-first-game-snakes-and-ladders

 

 

That was my first thought too!

Scott Wiley

I just posted to a similar request elsewhere and copied it here as it strongly applies.

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I would suggest looking into the CCAF model of instructional interactivity, proposed by Allen Interactions. They have some great examples on their website (http://www.alleninteractions.com/elearning-instructional-design-ccaf).

Context: What is the real-world situation that the learner would find themselves when using the knowledge. This can be as simple as using images that match a situation (office, sales counter, etc.)

Challenge: Convert "your" learning objectives into "their" perspective. Perhaps begin a scenario-driven story that sets the stage ("It was a dark and stormy night") and describes the upcoming activities that will have the learners make decisions with consequences.

Activity: Create the activities that mimic real-world activities.

Feedback: Can be in the form of "consequences" of what happened based on choices made in the activity. Can also be in the forms of immediate feedback or delayed feedback with recap of the steps they took.

Using this model can make it where guessing can actually take longer than paying attention to the material.

And while you may get some negative learner feedback from those used to the "Text and Next" courseware, the majority will love the interactivity and be able to more easily recall from long-term memory because they learned by doing.

Scott Wiley

While the SnL game idea sounds interesting, it doesn't relate well to the real world tasks one would be asked to accomplish on the job.

To Brenda's idea, you have some great objectives being fleshed out already that can be incorporated into a truly "instructionally interactive" activity or sequence of activities:

- Recognize possible hazards: can be a kind of "where's waldo" type of click to select possible hazards in a situation or series of situations.

 - Control/minimize hazards to minimize risk: Can be as simple as multiple choice question of options, or interact with the screen somehow to change position of ladder, object, etc.

Back to the CCAF model - Allen Interactions has a great example of another type of safety course available, "Procedural/Safety: Wheelchair Securement in Vans and Buses" that could help inspire you. 

Check it out here: http://www.alleninteractions.com/ctel