Ideas for VERY dry content

Thanks John! I know it can be difficult to find illustrations/visuals that go beyond the obvious. Finance and other dry topics desperately need this type of treatment - especially when you're communicating with a non-expert audience who might find the topic intimidating (although I've noticed that everybody appreciates visuals like this - including senior managers). The only people who seem to sometimes have a problem with illustrations are the brand police (*ahem*, brand guardians). 

I really enjoy reading how others improve learning content.  I have a unique situation wherein I work with government contracts globally -- some with limited internet capability.  I have to be very care about adding video or animation due to bandwidth.  Keep up with the great ideas!

What helped for us trying to get "boring" (compliance) content on an interesting basis:

• Is to keep the information based on the essentials only, create a discussion with your manager afterwards. This allows not much more loss on time (discussions can be part of teammeetings). This process is quite effective, but support from management and communication is needed for a smooth transition.
• Gamify content: I had the opportunity to join in on a project where new rules and regulations were put into a game. This game had a leaderboard which allowed users to compete with eachother. The first part on regulations were mandatory, but the leaderboard game was optional. We saw huge number in people trying to beat the highest score. This structure does not always work however. so use with caution.

I think one of the other things you can do, and this flips out a lot of folks, is ask a multiple-choice question before you deliver your content. Let's say we're in the middle of a (very dry) process, and we want to set up the next step.

I like to sort of review what we've done so far and where we're going, and ask them what they think might come next. Something along these lines:

"OK, remember, we're trying to make sure we execute the XYZ process correctly, and, when we're done, our output will be this... So far, we've done X and Y, but, before we can get to Z, what do you think we need to do?"

Then I have a multiple choice question with lots of good feedback to ensure they understand now only why the wrong answers were incorrect, but explaining why the correct choice was the correct choice. If someone gets the question correct, they get reinforced for being clever (or, granted, a lucky guesser), and if they get it wrong, they get feedback on their thinking.

Either way, though, I've already asked them to think critically about what's next, not just in terms of getting the right answer, but to consider the logic behind what we're doing.

Lots of folks think it's unfair to ask questions like this before you deliver the content, but I've found that if you get a question wrong, you're eager to find out why.

Great suggestion, Chris. Priming questions can be really helpful to the learning process. Good teachers use this technique in the classroom to get folks to orient to a topic before exploration. A lot of really great brain science behind priming.

Will Thalheimer points out the attention benefits of pre-questions in this report. Beyond attention, there is research that paints a strong link between authentic cues (some of the best questions are authentic cues) and the desired behaviors. Priming someone with the challenge gets their attention. But it does so in a way that opens them up to making a connection with the right answer. This is how I interpret the research, at any rate:)

Thanks for the link, Steve. I'm struggling getting this point across. This should help me a lot.

I had to do an open enrollment training a couple years ago...tons of information, and not exactly the most intriguing topic. I created a "talk show" theme for the topic, there was a "host" who led the show, and had "special guests", the host also took "call in questions" and questions from the "twitter feed"...it was very well received. I think whenever you can incorporate several voices, that definitely helps. I've used a similar format (talk/news show) for several other courses and they've been very well received. And they've not always had tons of bells and whistles, music and sound effects are also a powerful tools. You can find tons of royalty free sound effects on youtube, you can extract the audio with this free tool: http://www.listentoyoutube.com/

Just be sure to read the "fine print" under the video, sometimes they really aren't "free" other times the creators just want credit. Good luck! 

I'm a cartoonist/storyteller (so not an e-learning designer), but I work with trainers who deliver training on VERY DRY topics (financial processes etc). I turn the basic process into a cartoon story (I use a lot of visual metaphors - that's what can be done with illustration). Often very tongue in cheek. But you do need to get an illustrator who can do that - not every artist can turn an abstract concept into a metaphor (hence you get a lot of graphics where people just talk... which is just a little bit better than reading a text).