e-Learning by Design
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1 Designing e-learning 1
What is e-learning? 1
Definition of e-learning 1
Varieties of e-learning 2
What is e-learning design? 2
Start with good instructional design 3
Apply design to all units of e-learning 5
Design quickly and reliably 8
Identify your underlying goal 10
Analyze learners' needs and abilities 13
Identify what to teach 14
Set learning objectives 16
Identify prerequisites 26
Pick the approach to meet each objective 35
Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives 42
Create objects to accomplish objectives 47
Create tests 50
Select learning activities 51
Choose media 61
Then redesign again and again 64
Re-design but do not repeat 65
Not your sequential ADDIE process 65
Make steady progress 65
In closing 66
Summary 66
For more 66
2 Absorb-Type Activities 67
About Absorb activities 67
Common types of Absorb activities 68
When to feature Absorb activities 68
Presentations 69
About presentations 69
Types of presentations 70
Best practices for presentations 84
Extend presentation activities 92
Readings 93
About reading activities 93
Assign individual documents 95
Create an online library 98
Rely on Internet resources 99
Best practices for reading activities 101
Extend reading activities 103
Stories by a teacher 105
About sharing stories 105
Tell stories that apply to learners 107
Best practices for stories by a teacher 110
Extend stories by a teacher 111
Field trips 112
About field trips 113
Guided tours 113
Virtual museums 119
Best practices for field trips 123
Extend field-trip activities 126
In closing 127
Summary 127
Pick Absorb activities to accomplish objectives 127
For more 128
3 Do-Type Activities 129
About Do activities 129
Common types of Do activities 129
When to feature Do activities 130
Practice activities 130
About practice activities 130
Drill-and-practice activities 132
Hands-on activities 133
Guided-analysis activities 137
Best practices for practice activities 143
Extend practice activities 144
Discovery activities 146
About discovery activities 146
Virtual-laboratory activities 147
Case studies 152
Best practices for discovery activities 155
Extend discovery activities 156
Games and simulations 157
Use games as single activities 157
Extend game activities 160
In closing 161
Summary 161
Pick Do activities to accomplish learning objectives 162
For more 162
4 Connect-Type Activities 163
About Connect activities 163
Common types of Connect activities 164
When to feature Connect activities 164
Ponder activities 166
About ponder activities 166
Rhetorical questions 167
Meditation activities 168
Cite-example activities 171
Evaluation activities 172
Summary activities 174
Extend ponder activities 175
Questioning activities 176
Why use questioning activities? 177
Encourage learners to ask the right people 177
Encourage good questions 179
Insist on good answers 180
Best practices in questioning activities 181
Mechanism for asking questions 181
Enable questioning at the right time 182
Assess learners and learning 182
Extend questioning activities 183
Stories by learners 184
Have learners tell stories 184
Good stories are hard to tell 185
Evaluate storytelling fairly 185
Best practices for storytelling activities 186
Extend storytelling activities 186
Job aids 187
About job aids 187
Glossaries 188
Calculators 192
E-consultants 193
Best practices for job aids 194
Extend job aids 195
Research activities 196
About research activities 196
Scavenger hunts 198
Guided research 200
Best practices for research activities 203
Extend research activities 206
Original-work activities 207
About original-work activities 207
Decision activities 208
Work-document activities 208
Journal activities 210
Best practices for original-work activities 211
Extend original-work activities 212
In closing 213
Summary 213
Pick Connect activities to accomplish learning objectives 213
For more 214
5 Tests 215
Decide why you are testing 215
When are formal tests needed? 216
Why are you testing? 216
What do you hope to accomplish? 217
What do you want to measure? 218
Measure accomplishment of objectives 219
Select the right type of "question" 220
Consider the type question you need 220
Common types of test questions 221
True/false questions 222
Pick-one questions 225
Pick-multiple questions 228
Fill-in-the-blanks questions 231
Matching-list questions 234
Sequence-type questions 235
Composition questions 237
Performance questions 240
Pick type question by type objective 242
Write effective questions 243
Follow the standard question format 243
Ask questions simply and directly 244
Make answering meaningful 255
Challenge test-takers 258
Combine questions effectively 260
Ask enough questions 261
Make sure one question does not answer another 261
Sequence test questions effectively 262
Vary the form of questions and answers 262
Give significant feedback 263
Report test scores simply 263
Provide complete information 263
Gently correct wrong answers 265
Avoid wimpy feedback 266
Give feedback at the right time 266
Advance your testing 269
Hint first 269
Use advanced testing capabilities 269
Monitor results 273
Make tests fair to all learners 273
Test early and often 275
Set the right passing score 276
Define a scale of grades 278
Pre-test to propel learners 278
Explain the test 280
Prepare learners to take the test 280
Keep learners in control 281
Consider alternatives to formal tests 281
Use more than formal, graded tests 282
Help learners build portfolios 282
Have learners collect tokens 282
Adapt testing to social learning 282
Adapt testing to mobile learning 283
In closing 283
Summary 283
For more 284
6 Topics 285
What are topics? 285
Topics are learning objects 285
Examples of topics 286
Anatomy of a topic 293
Design the components of the topic 294
Title the topic 294
Introduce the topic 296
Test learning in the topic 299
Specify learning activities for the topic 301
Summarize the topic 303
Link to related material 305
Write metadata 307
Design components logically and economically 310
Design reusable topics 313
Craft recombinant building blocks 313
Design consistent topics 314
Avoid the "as-shown-above" syndrome 314
Integrate foreign modules 315
Example of a docking module 316
What to include in a docking module 317
In closing 318
Summary 318
Templates for topics 319
For more 322
7 Games and Simulations 323
Games and simulations for learning 323
Example of a learning game 324
How are games, tests, and simulations related? 325
Do you call it a game or a simulation? 325
Demos are not true simulations 326
How do games and simulations work? 327
What do we mean design? 328
Why games? 328
What can games do for us? 328
When to use games 329
Types of learning games 330
Quiz-show games 331
Word games 332
Jigsaw puzzles 333
Branching scenarios 334
Task simulations 335
Personal-response simulations 337
Environmental simulations 340
Immersive role-playing games 341
Design games for learning 342
Design to accomplish learning objectives 342
Express the goal as a specific task 344
Pick the right sized game 344
Emphasize learning, not just doing 345
Specify challenge and motivation 345
Manage competitiveness 345
Provide multiple ways to learn 345
Create a micro-world 346
Specify the game's world 346
Specify characters and important objects 347
Create a storyline 349
Create a back story 349
Specify the game structure 350
Assign the learner's role 350
Make the game meaningfully realistic 350
Specify rules of the game 351
Design a rich, realistic environment 351
Provide a deep, unifying challenge 352
Define indicators of game state and feedback 352
Specify the details 353
Sketch out the user interface 353
Write the words 353
Specify the graphical style 353
Specify other media 354
Engage learners 354
Hook the learner 354
Ask learners to suspend disbelief 355
Set the context 356
Provide real-world prompting and support 356
Present solvable problems 357
Adapt to the learner's needs 357
Challenge with time limits 358
Let learners try multiple strategies 359
Program variety into the game 359
Involve the learner 359
Teach through feedback 359
Provide intrinsic feedback 359
Inject educational feedback where needed 361
Provide continual feedback 361
But give crucial feedback immediately 362
Confront bad behavior and choices 363
Defer lengthy feedback 364
Anticipate feedback (feedforward?) 364
Enable learning through a variety of experiences 365
Provide complete, detailed feedback 366
Help learners correct mistakes 367
Offer abundant practice 367
Acknowledge achievement 368
Progressively challenge learners 369
Challenge learners 369
Ratchet up the challenge 370
Give closure between phases 371
Control the rhythm of difficulty 372
Require consolidating small steps 372
Manage game complexity 373
Beware combinatorial explosion 373
Menu excursions 374
Mission-sequential structure 376
Short-leash strategy 377
Safari structure 378
Breakthrough structure 378
Simplify learning the game 380
Guide actions with instructions 380
Explain the game clearly 380
Start with training wheels 381
Assist when needed 382
Show solution after a few attempts 383
Let learners request assistance 384
Include pertinent hints 384
Simplify the display for quick response 385
Minimize distractions 385
Accept all successful actions 386
Design coached task simulations 386
Plan progressive interactivity 387
Architecture of coach-me activities 387
Let the learner control coaching 389
Design branching-scenario games 390
Harvest storyline ideas 390
Pick a situation 390
Map objectives to scenes 391
Derive specific objectives to teach 391
Translate objectives to a story 392
Specify each scene 394
Thread together the scenes 395
Add context-setting scenes 396
Use games as e-learning courses 396
In closing 398
Summary 398
For more 398
8 Social Learning 399
What is social learning? 399
A definition, sort of 399
So what? 400
Consider the varieties of social learning 400
What is not social learning? 401
What is the group? 401
How do we "design" social learning? 402
What do we mean by design? 402
The role of the designer 402
Decide where and when to use social learning 404
Make learning more reliable 404
Make learning more enjoyable 404
Teach difficult subjects 405
Implement learning quickly and inexpensively 405
Build a network to support the learning in the future 406
What social learning requires 406
What is required of learners 406
What is required of the organization 408
Patterns of interaction 410
The elements of social learning 410
Combine patterns for complete activities 414
Social capabilities of software 415
Send targeted messages 416
Meet real-time 418
Discuss asynchronously 425
Broadcast sporadic messages 426
Post message sequences 428
Collaboratively create documents 433
Share creations 440
Vote and rate 446
Filter messages 450
Establish a point of contact 450
Set up and administer a team or other group 453
Facilitate rather than teach 454
Define the duties of the facilitator 454
Establish a code of conduct 455
Intervene in cases of bad behavior 456
Grade fairly in social learning 463
Assess against objectives 464
Use available evidence 464
Ways to assess learners 464
Set criteria for messages and posts 465
Or, forego individual assessment 466
Extend conventional activities for social learning 466
Extend Absorb activities for social learning 466
Extend Do activities for social learning 467
Extend Connect activities for social learning 467
Use proven social activities 468
Share what you learn 468
Back channel for presentations 469
Brainstorming activities 472
Team-task activities 474
Role-playing scenarios 476
Comparison activities 480
Group-critique activities 481
Encourage meaningful discussions 483
Design discussion activities 484
Ensure learners have necessary skills 486
Moderate discussion activities 487
Perform message maintenance 490
Promote team learning 490
Meet the requirements of a successful team 491
Form a team from individuals 492
Align goals of team members 492
Learn who can do what 493
Adopt team roles 495
Pick a leader, at least to start 496
Team processes 497
Set norms of behavior 497
Team warm-up activities 497
Fade out support 498
Design activities for teams 498
Engage in open inquiry 499
In closing 500
Summary 500
For more 500
9 Mobile Learning 501
What is mobile learning? 501
Start with worthy goals 501
Learn from the whole world 502
Take advantage of teachable moments 502
Teach in the context of application 502
Teach "outdoor" subjects 502
Make learning healthier 503
Learn more of the time 503
Enable virtual attendance 504
Reduce infrastructure costs 504
Prepare for an increasingly mobile world 504
Adapt existing learning for mobile learners 505
Enable participation in classroom learning 505
Accommodate mobile learners in the virtual classroom 506
Let mobile learners take standalone e-learning 506
Make social learning mobile 506
Performance support 507
Use the capabilities of the device 507
Design for the learner, environment, and device 515
Design for the mobile learner 516
Design for the environment where learning occurs 517
Design for the mobile device 519
Design guidelines for overcoming limitations 520
Design for easy reading 520
Maintain contact with learners 521
Design for the devices learners already have 522
Use learners' time efficiently 522
Fit text and graphics to the display 523
Provide low-bandwidth alternatives 524
Design for imperfect network connections 525
Enable "download and go" 525
Simplify entering text 526
Follow established user-interface guidelines 526
Remember, paper is a mobile device 526
Reuse existing content 527
Real mobile learning 528
Mobile discovery learning 528
Distance apprenticeship program 530
Architecture tour 532
Inject mobile activities into other forms of learning 536
Extend conventional activities for mobile learning 536
Extend Absorb activities for mobile learning 536
Extend Do activities for mobile learning 537
Extend Connect activities for mobile learning 537
In closing 538
Summary 538
For more 538
10 Design For the Virtual Classroom 539
Create a virtual classroom 540
Why create a virtual classroom? 540
What are Webinars and virtual-classroom courses? 540
Decide whether you need a live meeting 541
Select and use collaboration tools 542
Select your collaboration tools 542
Slide shows 545
Breakout rooms 547
Conduct online meetings 548
Plan the meeting 548
Decide roles 548
Prepare for the meeting 552
Announce the meeting 556
Manage the live online meeting 556
Activate meetings 558
Include follow-up activities 560
Design Webinars 560
When to use Webinars 561
Pick activities to teach 561
Design virtual-classroom courses 563
Select a qualified teacher 563
Teach the class, don't just let it happen 565
Plan predictable learning cycles 566
Respond to learners 568
Provide complete instructions 568
Simplify tasks for learners 575
Deal with problem learners 577
Follow up after the course 580
In closing 581
Summary 581
For more 582
11 Conclusion 583
How we will learn 583
Where we are headed 583
How we will get there 584
What has to happen 585
Secrets of e-learning design 585
Just the beginning 586
Appendix Essentialism 587
Essential essentialism 587
Set up the test 588
Supervise the test 588
The role of test subjects 589
The role of the expert 590
Role of the test conductor 591
Analyze test results 591
Record needed learning 591
Identify the learning approach 593
Infer design principles 594
Make testing better 595
Overcome the Hawthorne effect 595
Leave the lab-coat behind 595
Test a twosome 596
Provide all real resources 596
Reassure test subjects 597
Watch the video fully 597
Conduct enough tests 597
Pick valid test subjects 598
Recap: Master the essentials of essentialism 598
Index 599
Chapter 2
Absorb-type activities
Presentations, demonstrations, stories, and field trips
Absorb activities inform and inspire. Absorb activities enable motivated learners to obtain crucial, up-to-date information they need to do their jobs or to further their learning. In Absorb activities learners read, listen, and watch. These activities may sound passive, but they can be an active component of learning.
ABOUT ABSORB ACTIVITIES
Of the three types of activities (Absorb, Do, and Connect), Absorb activities are the ones closest to pure information. Absorb activities usually consist of information and the actions learners take to extract and comprehend knowledge from that information. In Absorb activities, the learner may be physically passive yet mentally active — actively perceiving, processing, consolidating, considering, and judging the information.
In Absorb activities, it is the content (really the designer or teacher or writer of it) that is in control. The learner absorbs some of the knowledge offered by the content.
Common types of Absorb activities
Several types of Absorb activities have established themselves in conventional education and have made the leap to online learning. They are:
Presentations during which learners watch or listen to a slide show, demonstration, podcast, or some other organized explanation (p. 69).
Readings for which learners read online or paper documents (p. 93).
Stories by a teacher in which learners listen to a story told by the teacher or some other expert or authority. The story is relevant to the subject of learning (p. 105).
Field trips for which learners visit museums, historic sites, and other places to examine many relevant examples (p. 112).
When to feature Absorb activities
Where would we rely heavily on Absorb activities — not to the exclusion of all others — but for what they can offer as part of a complete design?
Because Absorb activities provide information efficiently, they are ideal when learners need a little information. They are especially helpful when just updating current knowledge. For example, the learner has used Version 6.0.2 of a software package for months and just needs to learn how to adapt to Version 6.0.3. Or, a long-standing regulation has undergone a slight revision.
Absorb activities are also an efficient way to extend current knowledge and skills. Learners who understand the fundamentals of a field can increase their knowledge by absorbing new details that elaborate a theory, concept, or principle. If learners have the trunk and limbs of a field, they can absorb branches and leaves.
Additionally, Absorb activities are good partners to other kinds of activities. Often they are used to prepare learners for a Do activity. The absorb part of the partnership orients the learner, sets the context, establishes vocabulary, introduces principles, and supplies instructions needed before the learner can engage in a highly interactive Do activity. Likewise, Absorb activities are a good follow-up to Do activities. For instance, a Do activity, such as a learning game, may lead learners to discover the main principles of a subject and evoke curiosity to learn more. After the game, learners may be ready to absorb the principles and theories that will help improve their game scores.
Absorb activities are best for highly motivated learners. They are not inherently interesting. However, they are highly efficient for individuals who can focus their attention and are motivated enough to expend the effort to learn from “mere information.”
PRESENTATIONS
Presentations supply needed information in a clear, well-organized, logical sequence. They are analogous to a classroom lecture or an explanation by an expert.
Students learn by watching and listening to the presentation. Presentations may be experienced live in an online meeting or may be played back from a recording.
About presentations
Presentations convey information and demonstrate procedures and behavior in a straightforward (literally) flow of experiences.
When to use presentations
Presentations explain and demonstrate things to learners. They are commonly used to convey basic information, to demonstrate well-defined procedures, and to model human behaviors.
Presentations allow the designer to control the sequence of learning experiences. Use them where designers really do know the best way to teach certain material. Someone who has taught a course for ten years may know that certain explanations work better than others and that ideas must be introduced in a particular order to avoid confusion.
How presentations work
Presentations have a sequential structure. Most often they consist of an introduction, the body section, and a summary. The sequence is chosen to clarify the subject. Relatively uniform size segments occur at a regular pace.
Throughout this book I use little diagrams (such as the one that follows) to visually capture the flow of various activities. The little stick figures show what the learner or teacher is doing, and the rectangles more fully describe the type of activity in which they are engaged.
Although presentations may allow some optional topics, the primary pathway is linear — with the designer controlling the order of learning experiences. In recorded presentations, learners can control the pace of the presentation. And in live presentations, the learner may ask some questions, but the presenter determines the order.
Types of presentations
The types of presentations that are popular and effective in the classroom are popular and effective online. You may also want to model your presentation on one of these familiar forms:
Slide shows are based on an effective business or classroom slide show. True, most such presentations are not effective, but they could be. And yours can be too. A good slide show makes each point on a single slide. Slides include informative graphics and just enough text to convey the main point. Many use recorded voice to narrate the slides (p. 71).
Physical demonstrations show a person performing a physical procedure such as repairing a leaky faucet or lobbing a tennis ball. Physical demonstrations may be live or recorded as video (p. 72).
Software demonstrations are an over-the-shoulders view of an expert performing a complex procedure with a computer program. We hear the expert’s words and watch as the mouse clicks and typing appears (p. 74).
Informational films, such as documentary films, have been used to educate, inform, and motivate people since the development of film. Although now the “film” is digital video, the information conveyed uses many of the same cinematic techniques (p. 80).
Dramas show people in a fictional scene. You might use dramas to illustrate a successful interview or reveal team dynamics (p. 81).
Discussions, such as interviews, debates, and panel presentations, are useful for revealing important information and opinions (p. 82).
If people can learn by watching and listening to something, it can be an effective online presentation. Recorded presentations are, thus, as varied as designers are clever. You can alter them by your choice and sequencing of topics, by use of different media, and by ways you share control over pacing and branching with the learner.
Slide shows
Classroom slide shows can be converted to online, recorded presentations. These are usually a series of linked slides or Web pages through which the learner advances, typically by jack-hammering a Next button or hyperlink.
This slide from the middle of a slide presentation about why leaves change color in the fall, explains the process of photosynthesis. Animation shows the basic phases of photosynthesis and is synchronized with the text and voice-over narration.
Created in Microsoft PowerPoint and converted for Web delivery using iSpring Presenter. View example at horton.com/eld/.
Online slide shows may be created by narrating a classroom slide presentation and converting it to Web media. Tools for doing this include Articulate Presenter (www.articulate.com), Adobe Presenter (www.adobe.com), iSpring Presenter (www.ispringsolutions.com), and Impatica for PowerPoint (www.impatica.com). Or, you can record an online meeting during which you present slides.
Such sequences can be quite concise and graphical, especially when commentary is provided by voice-over narration. If sound is not a practical option, the commentary can be provided in text — after editing to reduce the amount of text, of course.
Slide shows rely primarily on text and graphics to tell their stories. They may also incorporate podcasts, informational films, dramas, demonstrations, and other forms of presentation.
Where to use slide shows
Since recorded presentations are much like a conventional slide show, they work well when presenting logically connected ideas, especially if expressed visually.
They may be the best choice economically and technically when you have proven slide presentations and the tools to quickly convert them for Web delivery.
Best practices for slide shows
Communicate visually. Make graphics carry the load. Convert paragraphs to pictures, tables, and lists. Where you can, replace wordy bullet lists with...
