As a newbee to e-learning content development, I am interested in developer thoughts on adult literacy levels for e-learning in a corporate setting? Besides the content and target audience, what is an appropriate grade or literacy level to keep in mind when designing e-learning?
Many professionals would agree that a 6th grade level is safe. A corporate environment does not mean all learners have a high reading level. You can test your texts readiblity in Microsoft Word. Here is a link that shows you how to test your documents readbility.
Having said that, you really would need to determine your specific populations reading ability to determine at what level you would write content.
This is one of the challenges in eLearning (and adult education in general), there will be a wide variety of learning experience and knowledge. Sometimes you have to develop a course that is appropriate for people who have advanced degrees and others who are functionally illiterate. Grade 6 is probably a reasonable target. At one point we worked towards a grade 8 reading level. The most popular newspaper with the field crews was a local tabloid, I found out that the paper wrote with a grade 3 reading level in mind. I decided then that we should lower the reading levels in courses. This does only apply to reading levels, the same may not apply to the spoken word.
We work with adult literacy learners in the Deaf stream. We always try to keep the vocabulary and idiomatic usage down to between a grade 3 - 5 level, sometimes lower. As I'm sure you know, visuals and demonstrations are also a necessity in this environment.
Even more advanced learners don't mind a clear language approach as it saves them time reading the material. Keep it short; keep it simple; keep it engaging!
6 Replies
Hi,
Many professionals would agree that a 6th grade level is safe. A corporate environment does not mean all learners have a high reading level. You can test your texts readiblity in Microsoft Word. Here is a link that shows you how to test your documents readbility.
Having said that, you really would need to determine your specific populations reading ability to determine at what level you would write content.
Thank you for your information.
This is one of the challenges in eLearning (and adult education in general), there will be a wide variety of learning experience and knowledge. Sometimes you have to develop a course that is appropriate for people who have advanced degrees and others who are functionally illiterate. Grade 6 is probably a reasonable target. At one point we worked towards a grade 8 reading level. The most popular newspaper with the field crews was a local tabloid, I found out that the paper wrote with a grade 3 reading level in mind. I decided then that we should lower the reading levels in courses. This does only apply to reading levels, the same may not apply to the spoken word.
Thank you for sharing your information on the topic.
I will certainly keep all of this feedback in mind!
We work with adult literacy learners in the Deaf stream. We always try to keep the vocabulary and idiomatic usage down to between a grade 3 - 5 level, sometimes lower. As I'm sure you know, visuals and demonstrations are also a necessity in this environment.
Even more advanced learners don't mind a clear language approach as it saves them time reading the material. Keep it short; keep it simple; keep it engaging!
Using visuals/demos and keep the learning short,simple and engaging.....Got it~ Thanks~
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.