Forum Discussion
High-Context Storyline Course Example
Hi David,
I alluded to this but wasn't as clear as I should've been in my previous post. There are two different kinds of up-front "telling": there's the explanation for how to use the course controls, and there's the telling of important facts and principles that a learner must know in order to succeed at a learning activity.
An argument can be made that explaining how to use the course is necessary, and I used to agree with this argument without question. But I am starting to wonder.
The other kind of telling seems more problematic because it can significantly bog the course down in a lot of boring infodumping before the learner has a chance to get engaged in any interactivity or interesting challenges. It's this latter kind of telling that I am mostly struggling to find a way to avoid.
At this year's ATD conference, I saw Ethan Edwards demo some e-learning where there was almost no explanation of any kind. The interface for the interactions had to be very, very carefully designed so that a learner could discover the rules by trial and error if necessary, without even the benefit of Correct/Incorrect feedback boxes. Instead, if an action was incorrect, the object would just move back to its starting point, or shake, or otherwise indicate visually that the learner had made an incorrect action. This is a very intriguing approach because it preserves an element of mystery that I think can motivate a learner to actually want to explore the material more deeply, to satisfy his or her own curiosity, which is aroused by such a minimal interface.
But designing a course this way is still a little beyond my skill level. I am very interested to know if anyone has other strategies for avoiding up-front telling, though. Maybe there's a method that's a little easier to implement. If so, I would like to learn about it!
Cheers!
-Ray
Hi Ray
Here's my two cents.
There are a lot of different ways of doing things, but a lot of it comes down to what you are trying to achieve with the elearning - you've spent a lot of time on it, so you want it to be as effective as possible.
Have you thought about your objectives in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude and awareness? I find this a really helpful way of breaking things down so as to focus on the most important things for the learners. Here's a blog I wrote about objectives a while back. https://whatyouneedtoknow.co.uk/blog/2014/02/11/objectives-chasing-tail-next-big-thing/
I know objectives are dull, boring, tedious, incomplete and all the rest of it, but the clearer the picture you have of what you want to achieve, the easier it is, in my opinion, to build the learning around it.
This isn't about... by the end of the module you'll be able to... it's about why is this training important and what knowledge, skills, attitudes and awareness should the participants come away with - it doesn't have to be all of them.
You mention below about the consequences not being severe, and it looks like you're training people who probably know quite a bit about what they're doing - so where are the challenges for them?
I'm not sure about discovering the rules by trial and error - personally I find this sort of approach really annoying when applied to elearning. There's a case for a 'discovery approach', but the technique only works, again in my opinion, when it's used for certain types of training - something like role plays. The point is - don't use a technique because someone says it's good - try it yourself as a real learner (not someone with a testing hat on) to see how you feel about it.
Best wishes
Andy