Session 3:Forget What You know About Instructional Design and Do Something Interesting!

This session was lead by Michael Allen, the CEO of Allen Interactions. (Allen Interactions is the company that has been designing the CDA course.) I missed his talk last year so I was looking forward to this session all day. Overall the session was pretty good, but a little disappointing. It’s difficult to apply broadly his principles to our stuff when all of his examples use a level of interactivity in Flash and gorgeous graphics that we/I are unable to match.

Some of his message is really obvious. Of course none of us want to create courses that are just about clicking the “next” button or reading text on screen. I mean, who wants to create boring content?

But he did give some overall ideas that I think can help us.

Success = getting people to do the right things at the right time. It’s not about knowing. It’s about DOING. How do you get people to actually do it??

Three success factors:

1. We need to enhance the learner’s motivation to learn
   What can we do to increase the learner’s motivation?
   If you have low budget, put most of resources toward motivation. If you have high motivation to learn, learner can even learn from PowerPoint slides.
   
   MY COMMENT: Jim has mentioned this before – and it’s a big issue for us. We need to instill the motivation to learn/develop as part of our corporate culture.
   
2. Focus learners on behavior-enhancing tasks
   Focus them on things to DO, not just to read
   
   MY COMMENT: I really like this concept. The question is how do we make “doing” activities in a low-tech environment.
   
3. Create meaningful and memorable experiences
   If you want people’s behavior to change, they have to remember it. Have to make learning relevant!
   
   Michael Allen says: You will increase effectiveness if tell learners that you’re going to be looking at their performance 4-6 weeks.
   
   MY COMMENT: Can we commit to testing learners 4-6 after taking a course? Memorable e-learning? I may have to bring some of the glitz from Vegas back to the computer screen in Watertown. Get ready for some bright lights!
   

Other comments from Allen:

Every brain is wired differently from every other brain, individually processing information in ways unique to that wiring. If only give learners one path, adult learners push back. Adult learners need to follow what they’re interested in.

MY COMMENT: This seems to point toward non-linear design.

People are natural explorers. Repetition and rehearsal are critical for the successful creation of long-term memories. E-learning should be something you can experiment and play with. People want to tell you in e-learning what you need to know. Need to put some mystery in e-learning. Clarity = boring.

MY COMMENT: Yep, he’s not so into the learning objective thing. He thinks that should be demonstrated. Not told. I dig it. I just think it can be really hard to do. On the flip side, the CDA course has that flexibility in it. But it also misses a whole bunch of things and needs a facilitator. Point is – if e-learning is the only source of the content, it still has to be complete.

Misunderstood principles:

- Content is king - nope, the experience is the most important thing

- Experts are the best SMEs – actually experts know too much and don’t remember not knowing. Recent learners are the real experts people who can remember not knowing the content or learning the skills. (always double check things with the learner, obviously)

- Finish analysis, then design - design aids analysis. Prototypes generate questions. Analysis is never finished.

- Tell, then test – boring! Better to test first, then tell. That is, demonstrate the need for information so that learners are thirsty for it.

TAKE AWAYS: My ramblings on how this may apply to our current courses
- can we put in a story for BoBFAM? Maybe we can have several employees as characters with their questions/concerns about the company. “I’m here to work with kids, not money. Why do I need to know about the business?” “Sarbox – is that contagious?”

- maybe worst-case or disastrous scenarios for BoBFAM. Ie center with terrible numbers. We loose gazillions of clients. Then different things you can do to “fix it” e.g. better customer service, more organized financials, upping enrollment, managing labor. Yeah, a “fix the business” slide sounds like fun.
- put in myths and myth busters? Eg our profit margin. McDonaldizing child care??
- need stories from the e-team members and others featured in WeBFAM. “When I first came to BFAM…” “My favorite memory from working here….” “What is most special to me about the company”