practical design techniques to personalise your elearning...

Practical design techniques to personalise your eLearning course

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13 tips to design more relevant e-learning

find inspiration from other designers

decide: will this work for me?

self-paced, asynchronous e-learning

Today I’m sharing 13 tips and examples you can use to make your e-learning more engaging by being specifically relevant to your users. Some of the tips are quick and easy—others are more involved.The best way I’ve found to become a better designer is by looking at what other designers have done and deciding whether it’s good, valuable, doable… for my context or situation. Sometimes I see amazing designs, but they’re completely unsuitable for what I need at the time, so these amazing ideas go into my arsenal for later use.

Today, it’s your turn to evaluate what you see. Some of the tips will be good for your situation, some won’t. Maybe some will need a bit of tweaking.

These ideas come from the context of self-paced, asynchronous e-learning. The examples are mostly but not exclusively from corporate e-learning. Some of these may apply to other types of learning delivery… but that’s up to your innovation.

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a. To render personal rather than impersonal or purely professional: personalise the doctor-patient relationship

b. To make or alter so as to meet individual needs, inclinations, or specifications: personalise a drug regimen; personalise emails to potential customers

Personalise:

a learning programme

visual design

trainer-traineementor-mentee

If we look at what personalising means, we can see that the first definition there can be applied to e-learning, but I’d argue that its more relevant to face-to-face learning. Think about how many times trainers ask trainees about more personal things, such as how their day’s going or what they did on the weekend. Personalising in this way is difficult, or at least unnatural, in an asynchronous, self-paced environment, but some of the tips I’ll be discussing next can assist in doing that.

The second one is more what I’m interested in today: meeting an individual’s needs, inclinations or specifications. In the context of e-learning, this is an integral part of the learning designer’s role, just like it is a face-to-face trainer’s.

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Ask learners about themselves

Just like a trainer would in a face-to-face setting, you can personalise the e-learner’s experience simply by knowing a little bit about them. You can’t use what you don’t know, so ask.

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hey, that’s me!

It’s pretty obvious that e-learning—or any other communication—can be personalised in a small but notable way by using people’s names.Ask and record the learner’s name. Then, use it sparingly when ‘talking’ to the learner throughout the course. But you can do more.

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In this example, we ask learners for additional information such as their job role, seniority, how many staff they manage. All such info can be used to further personalise the content. In many cases, it may just be a matter of dropping the relevant words into a sentence to make the content seem more contextually relevant to the learner. In other cases, you might actually create different learning pathways to match specific learner profiles.

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Here's another example: in this healthy lifestyle programme we created for a not-for-profit in the health industry, the learner inputs information about their eating habits for each food group and for each child in the family. They go through all of the food groups and then they can then compare their intake against the recommended intake per age group and gender. So rather than just providing the learner with generic information applicable to everyone, they get a personalised result. For now, though, a word of warning: don’t ask superfluous stuff just because you can. Asking for things that won’t be used is wasting everyone’s time.

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Understand and fulfil your learners

Continuing from the previous tip, for best results use your gathered information in a meaningful way. Help the learner acquire better, more relevant results.

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Is my chair ergonomic?

Are the floors dry enough?

For example, an accountant and a janitor may work in the same office, but the Workplace Health and Safety concerns will be distinct from each other. You could tailor a course that covered all employees in the same office, but addressed the specific needs of both accountants and janitors.

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Here’s a demo designed for children with nut allergies. Kids go through game levels and learn to identify different nuts along the way. Importantly, before they start playing, they’re asked what nuts they’re allergic to. The game levels then use this information to adapt. Each child is uniquely catered for by presenting a learning experience that gets the best results for their personal situation.

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For example, in this level, kids choose some nuts to snack on. They get points for choosing nuts that they’re not allergic to.

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In this other level, speed game, they get 30 seconds to tap as many safe nuts as they can—but if they tap something they’re allergic to, they lose points. It’s all about identifying safe options.

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Enable avatar tweaks

If your e-learning features a digital mentor who guides the learner—a character they see on every screen—you can increase the likelihood of engagement by letting them pick the look of the mentor.

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Like in this simple example from the folks at Articulate,

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or this slightly more complex but still doable demo where the learner chooses between men and women, then dress, then dress colours.I agree with the consensus that visual design is important and affects engagement. It might not have a huge impact on information retention, but it’s an instant way to make learners more invested in what they see on screen.

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Personalise the revisit

I dislike e-learning that doesn’t have a memory. From a user experience perspective, it’s important that after doing something on a screen, I should be able to come back to that same screen later and have it remember what I did.

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In this example, the learner is asked to come into the room, pull down the screen and watch a video. They then move on, but may need to come back and re-watch the video. When they do, the screen is exactly as they left it—down. This simple example shows a level of continuity that’s important to my psychology… but, the idea is to not make learners do the same thing again for no reason.

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Here’s a more purposeful example. A simple pop-up message “Hey, you’re back! Did you forget something? How can I help you?”. This one works well with screens where the learner can come back to check information as needed, like progress or downloadable resources. It also helps distracted learners realise they’ve been here before. This helps develop a sense of location. Perhaps this screen adds new resources or information on each re-visit. If that’s the case, tell them.

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Carve learning to fit the

learner’s fork

We’ve all designed courses for busy people—they can never seem to spare more than 10 minutes for compliance training… but, often times, your subject matter needs more than 10 minutes of study to master.

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Here’s an example of something I call a “Get-out-of-the-e-learning-course-free card” You can see that it lets them know what they’re in for right at the beginning by asking if they have 15 minutes to chat. They can respond ‘sure, no problem’ or ‘honestly, not really’. If they pick the latter, it gives them an option to go halfway right now. Who can resist an offer to learn something new and useful in only seven minutes? Hopefully, at this point they say yes.

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When they do, they’ll progress to the halfway point, and then we’ll offer to let them have a break. This is a save-point where they can easily come back and do the rest later—whether this afternoon, tomorrow or next week. Of course, once they’ve already made it through seven minutes, maybe they’ll choose to just knuckle down and chug through another eight minutes more to finish it off.

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Help learners... when they need it

Some designers know exactly who they’re designing for. They deal with specific teams with specific roles all within the same company. You may even know exactly who your learners are individually and by name and job role.Others design learning products to be sold off-the-shelf. In these cases, the courses could be studied by whoever and wherever.

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Source: knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-know-nothing-jon-snow

In the latter case, designers can’t assume too much about who learners are or what they know. In many cases they know nothing

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Hint

If it’s feasible, always include on-demand help. The strugglers will use it, the achievers probably won't and the middle-ground will feel nice to have it there just in case.Lower-level learners will appreciate hints and help functions in your e-learning.

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Skip option

Use skip options if you’re worried about needlessly delaying higher level learners.

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SERIOUSLY?!

For some reason, course navigation is a particularly touchy subject in this sense. There are plenty of online debates about whether learning designers should tell learners how to navigate an e-learning course. There are some reasonable arguments on each side.

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To me the answer is simple: let the learner choose. If they need instructions, give it to them. Otherwise, let them glide through like the pros they are.If you’re course has particularly unusual navigation, first, maybe ask yourself whether that’s necessary. Second—and this is the relevant point—make sure instructions are always available. It might be intuitive, or you might have to point out how learners can get guidance if they need it. Either way, make them feel comfortable that they can access it any time.

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Choose your own adventure order

Michael Hinze—a learning designer and developer based in Canada—created a course where the learner can create their own table of contents.

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Source: blog.keypointlearn.com/2014/02/21/byoc-build-your-own-course-with-storyline/

The learner chooses which topics they want to study, then drags them onto the menu in the order of their choice. The course then plays the selected topics in that order. In his blog post, Michael describes how he built it and also gives a downloadable source file: blog.keypointlearn.com/2014/02/21/byoc-build-your-own-course-with-storyline/

Suffice to say this is a great way for the learner to choose what to learn and in which order.

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Design interactive conversations

We all know that much of what we learn in the workplace comes from places other than formal training. A major source are the interactions that we have with managers and peers. For self-paced e-learning, we can create interactive conversations that can serve as an equivalent of those office conversations.

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I guess, do you know anything about widgets?

Huh? What’s a widget?

Yup, I’m super keen!

Learner choices

Hi there, I hear you want to learn about widgets?

Narrator

Awesome, so am I! So, what do you…?

Right… you need help. A widget is… So, what do you…

Funny, you should ask, I know heaps! So, what do you…?

In an interactive conversation there’s a narrator, that is, recorded audio—this works best but text-only can work too—and options for the learners to engage in the conversation.

With a bit of clever design, we can create the sense that the learner is having a real conversation—albeit with a virtual person.

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Here’s an example about being fair as a boss. A narrator converses with the learner, asking them relevant questions along the way. The learner answers by choosing from the options on the screen. When they choose, the narrator responds appropriately. Depending on the choices the learner makes, they might get a giggle, a gasp or a sarcastic comment.

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In this other example we developed for job-search giant SEEK, we’ve got a Guide who talks to the Learner through each topic. When the Learner gets something “wrong” or doesn’t know the answer to a question, the Guide gently brings them back on track in a casual, conversational way.

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Create scenario questions

I won’t get into complex branching scenarios today, but I’d like to mention scenarios quickly.

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A learning scenario consists of a description of a realistic situation […], accompanied by one or more questions that challenge the learner to respond to some aspect of that situation.

At its simplest, a scenario could consist of a single description followed by a single question…

Learning scenario:

Source: onlignment.com/2011/05/a-practical-guide-to-creating-learning-scenarios-part-1

Well-designed scenarios substantially increase learner engagement. They put the learner in a familiar context—a place where they work, an event they know well, a position to which they aspire.

To personalise a context in this way, you need to know your audience. It pays to find out about real situations that are relevant to your learners. If you’re developing a course for a specific organisation, ask senior staff for ideas. If you’re making a product that could be sold across an industry, talk to subject matter experts for inspiration. Find a context that is common enough across your entire audience and use it to design an effective and targeted scenario.

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This privacy course we developed for APA Group makes use of scenario questions to teach about Australia’s Privacy Principles.

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Include a journal

I love it when I have the option to take notes within a course, especially if I can save them or print them. Like many others, taking notes helps me learn and remember things. Even if I never go back to read them, just the act of writing or typing helps commit it to my brain.

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Source: http://tracycarroll.net/storyline2-print-email-notes

In this example Tracy Carroll, an instructional designer based in California, created a template where the learners can type in their thoughts in response to a question, compare their ideas with an expert’s and then print and email their notes. Tracy describes how she built this template and also offers a free download in her blog post: http://tracycarroll.net/storyline2-print-email-notesI wish all e-learning had a note-taking option.

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print email

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Make feedback ‘learny’

I often see quiz questions where the feedback learners get is limited to a Ding for correct! or a Ba-bow for Incorrect I’m gonna call that out as an opportunity for improvement.

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not ‘learny’

I get it, we have tight deadlines, we often don’t get the time we need. Providing meaningful feedback takes more time. But, it’s very simply worth it. Imagine if you’re attending a face-to-face course. The trainer asks a question, you answer incorrectly and the trainer says “Sorry, you have selected the incorrect response” and moves on to the next topic! No trainer would do that. They would give you feedback.

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‘learny’

E-learners also need feedback to know how they’re travelling. It needs to be regular and it needs to be good. So, rather than just giving a Ba-bow for a wrong answer, learners will benefit from truly remedial feedback. At this point of knowledge application, this little addition makes the learning more relevant by giving folks the extra that they need to do better next time.

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Source: digitallicence.com.au/trial-the-quiz

The Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s Digital Licence does exactly that—it places the learners—primary and secondary school-aged children—in a situation where they must make the right choice. If they don’t, they learn through the feedback.

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Source: digitallicence.com.au/trial-the-quiz

teach through feedback

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In this healthy lifestyle programme, learners choose 10 drinks from the fridge. The feedback adapts based on what they choose—in this case, for example, we chose too many sugary drinks.

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In this other example from the same programme, learners are asked to read a nutrition label and decide whether it’s a healthy choice. Then, they’re provided with learny feedback.

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Make feedback realistic

For e-learning simulations and case studies, it’s common to put the learner into the protagonist’s shoes.

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one warning!

In this example, they’re an insurance broker. They must make the right choices to gain a new client, earn their trust and create the best possible insurance plan for them.In real life, we get feedback at work all the time—‘good job on that report’ or ‘client X wasn’t so happy about that’ or getting fired—it’s all feedback.Here, the broker is given warnings. A first warning from their manager, a second perhaps in the form of additional PD, and third where they’re demoted or lose their job. You can see that this is an example of what we were talking about before: the feedback is learny. But importantly, it’s also realistic. People learning to work in insurance won’t relate their professional achievements to exploding spaceships nor to losing a sports trophy. They will relate that professional conduct to office-bound implications and real-world consequences. By using this already-established connection, the content will be more relevant, but also more likely to be recalled at important instances in the future.

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In this zombie apocalypse demo, you must find food by looking inside cars. If you look in the right car, you find food and survive, but if you look in the wrong one, you get eaten by zombies… now that’s realistic feedback.So, talk to your subject matter expert to get pearls of wisdom. What would they say to the insurance broker who made this bad decision? There’s your realistic feedback

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“realistic”

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Let learners pick their rewards

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In this demo, the learner’s Star Wars knowledge is rewarded by promoting them to a Jedi status. But come on, everyone has a different favourite Jedi, right? Here we first ask the learner which Jedi is their favourite between Yoda, Anakin, PloKoon and Obi Wan.

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Then, they answer all the questions and if they get the highest score, they get to be their favourite Jedi. So rather than assuming everyone wants to be Yoda, let’s first ask them.

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This method is ripe for corporate e-learning. Some companies even offer physical rewards for good performance on professional development, like a free lunch or coffee, or a voucher. So, begin by finding out what your learners actually like, then make them earn it.

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incorporate early

be relevant

choose carefully and meaningfully

To finish off:Incorporate personalisation early in the design process., not as an afterthought. This lets you use it effectively and productively rather than being haphazard and gimmickyBe relevant. Personalisation should be a practical tool, not something that is done for the sake of technical peacockery. Use it properly to make courses more relevant and meaningful to the learners.While some personalisation techniques require a sizeable budget, most of the tips mentioned here do not. Choose carefully and meaningfully.

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storylinetraining.com.au/bonus

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practical design techniques to personalise your elearning...

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