Instructional design implications

brianleeeee

Techniques to help learners effectively self-assess and self-correct. Because adult learning begins with and is sustained by self-assessment and self-correction, it’s critical for instructional designers to provide frequent embedded questions or self-checks, practice exercises, and/or hands-on simulations. Similarly, it’s important to provide correct or incorrect feedback, as well as the correct answer, to enable learners to correct their mistakes.

While it’s rarely feasible to develop different versions of the same course to accommodate different learning styles, it’s possible to develop one course that supports the learning strategies typically used by the target audience. If designers know the types of learning strategies used by many of the learners likely to take the training, they can include support for those learning strategies in the course. How do you get that information? During the analysis step of the ISD process, designers should identify the personal learning strategies typically used by the target audience. For example, if many learners say they prefer to dive in and just try to do something, then the course might contain simulations that learners can access anytime or be structured as a job aid so learners can access the information when they’re ready to perform the task on the job.

Another self-assessment activity that learners use is to ask whether training met their needs or expectations. Designers can help learners quickly answer this type of question by clearly describing the goals or objectives in the course description and at the beginning of the course. This introductory information helps learners decide, before taking a course, if the course will likely meet their needs.

Re-reading content is a common remedial strategy that adult learners use as part of their self-correction activities. Re-reading and reviewing content is easy to accomplish in paper-based instruction, but in self-paced, technology-based training, navigation can make it difficult for learners to back-up or review. This is unacceptable. Designers of self-paced, technology-based training must ensure that learners can easily re-read content whenever they’re confused or need to search for specific information. Techniques that support reviewing and re-reading include a table of contents, a searchable index, a site or content map, and a navigation design that enables learners to go to any section or sub-section. A glossary, a search capability, and section headings and summaries also support reviewing and re-reading. Finally, a print feature allows learners to create a job aid they can use to review the course content offline.

Techniques to help learners effectively use reflection. Designers can help adult learners effectively use reflection by providing numerous examples that exemplify how the learner might use the content, how the content fits into a larger framework, and alternative ways to apply the content. Examples also help learners understand the range of situations to which the content applies.

Examples can take the form of case studies, simulations, or hands-on exercises. They should range from simple to complex to enable learners to progressively improve their skills and knowledge. Some learners may choose to start with the most difficult examples to assess their skills and some students may start with the easiest examples to build their confidence.

When teaching concepts and theory rather than hard skills, designers can help learners reflect on the critical attributes of those concepts by including both examples and non-examples. The non-examples should have many attributes similar to the examples and differ from them only in terms of a few critical attributes.

Another technique for facilitating reflection is to ask learners to create their own examples. Most adult learners do this without being prompted, but designing these reflective experiences into the instruction can help learners create personalized examples at particularly relevant points in the course. It also motivates learners that normally don’t create their own examples.

Rhetorical questions are another method for facilitating reflection. At the end of a section or the end of the course, designers can ask learners to think about the implications or consequences of the course content or how they might use the content on the job.

To help learners understand the big picture, designers can use a building block analogy to describe how the various pieces of content fit together. They can create visuals to show the relationship between all the pieces and how they fit together to create the whole. This visual aid can then be used as part of section and course summaries, part of a job aid, and part of self-assessment practice exercises.

To help learners reflect on a course after completing it, designers should provide support and encouragement for learners to create personalized job aids. They should also encourage learners, at the end of a course, to return to the course if they need to refresh their memories or they experience a problem while applying something discussed in the course.

Techniques to help learners effectively use their prior experiences. Self-paced, technology-based training should help learners create links between the course content and the experiences they have had in the past, or it should answer a question or resolve a problem learners have experienced in the past. During the analysis step of the ISD process, designers need to identify the range and type of prior experiences the target audience brings to this training. Designers can use this learner analysis information to develop examples and analogies that are relevant to their learners.

Similarly, designers can use learner analysis information to create definitions of new terms. When defining a term, designers can include references or comparisons and contrasts to experiences learners are likely to have had in the past.

Designers can also use information about learners’ prior experiences to develop practice questions and feedback. For example, they can create a practice question that’s based on a common prior experience. If the question is a multiple-choice question, they can use common mistakes as distracters. If they allow learners more than one attempt on the practice question, they can use a common prior experience as a hint for learners who answered the question incorrectly and are trying again to answer the question.

Another useful design technique is to include historical information about the course content with timelines showing other relevant historical events.

Techniques to help learners effectively use conversations. Given the importance of group discussions and conversations as effective adult learning strategies, I suggest that designers begin and end all self-paced, technology-based training with a suggestion to learners that they discuss the course content with anyone and everyone who will listen. Conversations with friends, colleagues, spouses, children, parents, tennis partners, or neighbors will help learners retain the information they’ve covered during a course. Discussions with people who know nothing about the content require learners to simplify the content and make it accessible to novices. Discussions with co-workers help learners consider how others interpret and use the content, and discussions with experts help learners understand where to improve their new skills and knowledge.

Techniques to help learners effectively use authentic experiences. As noted above, when learners finish a course, they’re primed to use their new skills. A technique to capitalize on this motivation is to provide learners with a list of situations in which they can apply what they learned--and are likely to encounter. Alternatively, ask learners to create this list for themselves.

Another end-of-course strategy to help learners practice what they learned is to conclude training with a few reflection questions, such as “Which of the concepts or procedures in this course can you use in the next few days?” or “Which concept or procedure will improve your efficiency in the next week?” Another idea is to begin a course with a few suggestions, such as “As you take this course, think about your current responsibilities and how you can use a concept or procedure taught in this course to improve your efficiency or effectiveness.”

Another design technique to help learners effectively use authentic experiences is to include descriptions, examples, or at least notes in the instruction about different approaches or procedures that achieve the same end-result. For example, if there are three different procedures for replacing a part in a machine, make sure the instruction explains that there’s more than one effective procedure. Perhaps there’s a preferred procedure, but be sure to explain or describe the other two so learners aren’t surprised or confused when they talk to colleagues or peers about this task.

Finally, managers can help learners have authentic experiences by talking with them before and after they take a self-paced, technology-based course. Before the course, the discussion should focus on how the learner is expected to use the new information. After the course, this discussion should focus on what the employee learned. This debriefing discussion could be part of a staff meeting, where employees share with the team new, relevant, and interesting information from a course.